Louisville and Stanford are the only two schools from Power Five conferences that have earned the APR recognition in at least seven of the last eight years. The men’s basketball team has attained a collective 3.0 grade point average for 22 of the last 24 semesters, including a 3.160 cumulative team mark for the Spring 2020 semester under head coach .Ěý



It is the third-straight year that the Cardinals’ women’s basketball team has received public recognition through the NCAA Academic Performance Program. Four team members earned their degrees this semester, including  (M.S. in Sport Administration),Ěý (B.S. in Criminal Justice),Ěý (B.S. in Criminal Justice with a minor in Communication), and  (B.A. in Communication with a minor in Sociology).  The team achieved a 3.688 grade point average for the 2020 Spring semester GPA, highest in the Coach  era over the last 13 years, and its 2019-20 academic year GPA of 3.415 was the second-highest.

The Cardinals have earned a GPA above 3.0 for the last 12 straight semesters and 11 of 16 team members made the Dean’s List for the Spring semester (3.5+ GPA). Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý were both named to the All-ACC Academic Team.



This marks the fourth consecutive year that the women’s cross country team is earning the honor. Under head coach , the team earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors this fall with a team GPA of 3.30. Three members of the team, Bailey Beery, Brittney Hansen and Lauren Radenhausen, earned their undergraduate degrees this semester. Two-time All-American Dorcas Wasike was named the ACC Women’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year while also being named to the 2018 USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.



The women’s golf program is receiving the recognition for the 10th consecutive year. The team has produced 19 semesters in a row with a GPA of 3.4 and eight with a 3.5 or higher. Coached by , the Cardinals achieved a 2020 Spring GPA of 3.58.  Last summer, four golfers were named Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American Scholars, including Olivia Cason, Lauren Hartlage, Delaney Shah and Lauren Thibodeau.



UofL’s volleyball team, which reached its first-ever NCAA Elite Eight in 2019, posted an impressive 3.845 GPA for the 2020 Spring semester, with all 15 student-athletes achieving above a 3.0. In addition, 11 of coach ‘s student-athletes made Red and Black Scholars List with cumulative GPAs above 3.25. Six volleyball players made the Dean’s Scholar List with a perfect 4.0 GPA and a total of seven students made Dean’s List with a 3.5 GPA or better.  ,Ěý,Ěý,Ěý,ĚýĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý were named to the All-ACC Academic list with McHenry being awarded the ACC Postgraduate Scholarship for Volleyball.



A total of 83 teams from Atlantic Coast Conference member schools were honored with APR Public Recognition Awards, second-most among Power 5 conferences. The ACC is one of two Power 5 conferences to have at least two teams recognized from each of its member schools.  The ACC has led all Power 5 conferences in 14 of the 15 years since the NCAA began APR public recognition of Division I teams.  A total of 525 ACC teams have earned APR Public Recognition Awards over the past six years, which leads all Power 5 conferences.

Louisville’s five teams are among nearly 1,400 teams from 326 Division I universities that were recognized for academic excellence for ranking among the top 10 percent of their sports in the most recent APR.Ěý Multiyear APRs for the most-recent single-year figures from 2018-19 for all Division I sports teams will be released on May 19.Ěý The process for determining an Academic Progress Rate score is included at .

Established in 2013 by Alex and Tommy Gift in honor of their late mother, who passed away from breast cancer in 2010, the Gift Fund helps patients and their families enjoy life while facing a cancer diagnosis. For the past several years, the fund has provided Thanksgiving turkeys for patients at the UofL Brown Cancer Center.

To continue the tradition, the Gifts and former volleyball player Paige Sutton are sponsoring the tournament. Coed Quad Open Division play starts at 9 a.m. (check in at 8:15 a.m.). The Coed Sixes Division will start at about 2 p.m. (check in at 1:30 p.m.).Ěý

Team registration fees of $300 go directly to the fund. A cash prize of $3,000 to be divided among winning and runner up teams has been donated by The Power Agency. To register a team or make a donation, go to the event’s .

Ward 426 on Baxter Ave., directly across the street from Baxter Jack’s, has once again agreed to donate a portion of all food and beverage sales throughout the day to the Gift Fund.

“Mary Jane taught us countless lessons throughout the course of her life. Stay Positive. Be thankful. Step away from it all,” Alex Gift said. “The fund can help do this by providing simple gifts to patients that could help improve their quality of life, even if it’s for a short period of time.”

The event has brought in more than $45,000 throughout six years.

In fact, many Cardinals have been firing things up even more these past few months – going beyond the ACC and the NCAA to take on the world.

Some are even sitting on top of it.

Take Mallory Comerford, for example. Even if you don’t follow the sport of swimming, you probably know she’s one of the most decorated athletes in UofL history, with four NCAA titles under her belt. Now, she’s also a world record holder.

During the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, in July, Comerford swam the third leg of the mixed 400 freestyle relay, which won a gold and set a new world record. She was also part of the women’s 400 freestyle relay, which set an American record and earned a gold medal, and the women’s 400 medley relay, which also won the gold.

For measure, Comerford’s individual effort in the women’s 100 freestyle earned her a seventh-place finish in the world.  

Her former teammate, UofL alum Kelsi Worrell Dahlia, also earned a world record during the meet as a member of the women’s 400 medley relay. The day prior, Dahlia achieved an American record in the 50 butterfly with a fourth-place finish.

Newly-graduated Zach Harting also competed in the World Championships, finishing sixth in the 200 men’s butterfly. The Cardinals’ head coach Arthur Albiero was one of Team USA’s coaches during the meet, marking the fifth time he has been tapped to coach a national team.

This meet is one of the last international competitions before the 2020 Olympic season starts and our Cards are in a good spot to potentially represent Team USA next summer in Tokyo.

Women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz is also a world champ, having coached Team USA at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand, last week. Team USA beat Australia in the championship game 74-70 in overtime.

Meanwhile, Dani Busboom Kelly, head coach of the Cardinals’ volleyball team, spent much of July coaching USA Volleyball’s High Performance Teams in Florida. This experience builds on her 2018 resume, in which she coached the US Collegiate National Team to a gold medal in the European Global Challenge in Croatia.

One of Kelly’s players, Tori Dilfer, a sophomore setter from California, was part of the U.S. Women’s Collegiate National Team this summer, which placed ninth in an international tournament in Nocera, Italy, in July.

Incoming UofL freshman Jessica De Filippo was part of the Canadian U-20 soccer team during a Women’s U-20 international series played in England in early July. Speaking of soccer, former UofL standout Chinyelu Asher represented Jamaica during July’s World Cup.

UofL incoming lacrosse players Maddie McDonough and Nicole Perroni are currently representing their respective countries (Israel and Canada) in the 2019 FIL U19 World Championships in Canada.Ěý

UofL’s head coach Scott Teeter led the 2019 Canada Women’s Field Lacrosse U19 National Team Evaluation Camp in June, as well. Teeter has served as head coach of the Canadian U19 National Team since 2009.

Finally, (we think?) Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell spent much of his summer coaching the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, his first year as head coach.

“To put a uniform on, especially a USA uniform, one just to compete again is fun and healing when the season ends with a loss, but especially when you put the USA uniform on. It’s a real treat,” .Ěý

From the pool to the court to the pitch to the field, Cardinal Athletics have made quite an impact on the world stage this summer. This should provide plenty of momentum heading into the fall sports season, and plenty of pride while donning the red and black.

The team won the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation (NCVF) last weekend in St. Louis, becoming the first club sport at UofL to win a national championship.Ěý

The club started just three years ago, which makes the victory that much sweeter, said Sam Bibelhauser, club founder and a fourth-year Speed School student.

“That’s been the road – starting from scratch all the way to the national championship,” he said. “We’ve worked so hard to get here.”

The championship, which is the biggest collegiate volleyball competition in the world, hosted 456 men’s and women’s teams from around the country, competing in five levels of play.

In posting a 9-0 record for the weekend, the team beat Duke, Texas Tech, Drexel, Stanford, California State Sacramento, Nebraska, Georgia Tech and West Virginia, before beating Cal. State Sacramento again 23-25, 25-17, 15-11 in the tournament final.

Zach Bixler, Anthony Campisano and Zack Rosenbaum joined Tournament MVP Nolan Mattingly on the All-Tournament Team.

Bibelhauser said the moments after they won were surreal. Campisano squeezed his shoulder and said “you started it Sam.”

“I almost lost it. I was near tears on the court, because it helped me remember that I was an important part of getting us there. But then again, every person there mattered in getting us on the road to the national championship.”

Before college, Bibelhauser played volleyball for St. Xavier High School in Louisville, which has a strong program, and for the Louisville Fury Volleyball Club. When he got to UofL, he noticed there were a number of players from those programs here.

“I was looking around thinking, we have the tools, why don’t we have a team?” he said.

He connected with , got the ball rolling, and wrote the club’s constitution with co-founders Andrew Hayden, Madalyn Wead and Alicia Von Handorf.

At first, the team faced significant financial and logistical obstacles. Due to limited availability at the , the team struggled to figure out where they could practice, as well as how to pay for court time and team travel/equipment expenses.

“We had to rent off campus courts to practice, which were about $1,000 and then pay a couple of thousand dollars that would allow us to travel to tournaments. It was hard, but we got better at fundraising,” Bibelhauser said.

Eventually doors opened at the SAC gym at the right times and they were able to practice twice a week.

“That was the best thing in the world,” he said. “We were able to make so much progress.”

They also got better at recruiting. Now, they have 50 members on four men’s and women’s teams.

Bibelhauser said the whole journey has been a huge part of his college career.

“I’m going to miss the five seniors who are graduating. We made a special group together,” he said.

Bibelhauser, who landed a co-op next year with NASA, said that when he was interviewing for different opportunities, he found himself telling a lot of stories about his experiences with volleyball.   

“It was a lot of hard work, there were obstacles, for me and the club, but we worked through them together, and that experience is irreplaceable,” he said. “It’s made for great memories. It’s a totally student-run organization and running it with the executive board made for a great life experience.”

And what of the fact that they were the first club in UofL history to win a national championship?

“That’s amazing,” he said. “That makes that team mean even more to me.”

The club will be recognized and the national banner unveiled Tuesday, April 24, during the annual Intramural Awards program at the Red Barn.