Women's Basketball Season Tickets Are on Sale Now
July 02, 2008 | Women's Basketball
July 2, 2008
Louisville, Ky - University of Louisville Women's Basketball tickets are now on sale in the Cardinal Athletic Ticket Office. Fans are encouraged to purchase tickets now to see their 2008-09 Top 10 team in action this season. The Cardinals are coming off their best season in school history with their first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance.
Louisville was ranked in the Top 15 in the country in attendance last season and was ranked No. 10 in the ESPN.com Preseason Poll. For the second year in a row Angel McCoughtry was named a WBCA/State Farm All-American. First year head coach Jeff Walz was named the WBCA/Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year. The Cardinals return four starters from last season's Sweet Sixteen team.
The University also received one of only 17 grants awarded as part of the newly designed NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Grant Program, designed to foster the growth of women's basketball on NCAA member campuses and within NCAA member conferences.
"We want to grow the game of women's basketball at the grass roots level," said NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Vice President Sue Donohoe. "We hope these grants will give schools and conferences the extra resources they need to enhance their women's basketball program."
More than 70 member institutions and conferences submitted proposals in the first year of the three-year pilot program. "The competition for the grants was very intense as institutions and conferences came up with original ideas for promoting women's basketball. We're very pleased to be awarding this grant to the University of Louisville. We're excited for the Cardinals and can't wait to see the results," said Donohoe.
Louisville is planning to use the grant for many exciting activities and initiatives, including the WBCA "Think Pink" promotion to raise funding and awareness for breast cancer, Scout Days, Black History Month Celebration in conjunction with JCPS, First Responders Appreciation Day and National Girls and Women in Sports Day to name just a few.
U of L was also named the overall winner of the NCAA Division I "Pack the House" Challenge. Schools urged fans to "Pack the House" for selected women's basketball games. And pack the house, they did. Of 198 institutions participating, Louisville was one of only six schools that sold out and had the largest single attendance with 19,123 in Freedom Hall when the Cardinals faced top ranked Connecticut.
"The community along with our corporate partners like Kroger and Rally's answered our invitation to be a part of something special," said Julie Hermann, U of L Senior Associate Athletic Director. "With our talented coaches and team, over 19,000 fans witnessed exciting basketball and helped us make history."
"Pack the House" is a first-year national effort in which conferences and institutions compete to build attendance. One winner from each of the 31 conferences and one from a group of independent institutions were named. Selections were based on marketing plan creativity and attendance criteria. The NCAA awarded prizes and donated $500 to the nonprofit organization of each winning institution's choice. Louisville's beneficiary was Women4Women/Champions 4 Her, a local non-profit group working to improve the lives of girls and women in our community.
Cardinal Women's Basketball is a fan friendly, family oriented affordable fun. For tickets or for more information, call the athletic ticket office at 852-5151 or log on to UofLsports.com.
