LOUISVILLE, Ky. — October 18, 2023
The 2023-24 women’s basketball season is right around the corner and the Louisville women’s basketball team is ranked No. 15 in the preseason USA Today Coaches poll and No. 17 in the preseason AP poll. It is the 13th-straight season the Cardinals are ranked in the preseason Top-20 and the 14th time they have been inside the Top-20 during Jeff Walz’s tenure.
The Cardinals have the longest active streak of being ranked in the preseason Top-20 among ACC teams. The second-longest current streak by an ACC team is only two years.
Louisville is coming off another successful campaign during the 2022-23 season. The Cardinals advanced to the Elite Eight for the fifth-straight season, the only team in the country to make each of the last five Elite Eight’s. The Cardinals advanced to the Sweet 16 for the sixth-straight season, the third-longest active streak in the country. The Cardinals also advanced to the ACC Tournament Championship game for the fourth time since they joined the conference in 2014-15. The four championship game appearances is second-most in the conference over the last 10 years.
The 2023-24 Louisville Cardinals have already been on the court together this year when they traveled to Toronto for the 2023 GLOBL JAM this past July. The Cardinals came home with the gold medal after graduate transfer Sydney Taylor hit the game-winning three pointer with less than a minute left to beat the hosts, Canada, in the gold medal game. Taylor was named the Tournament MVP as she led the team in scoring over the four games.
The Cardinals return four players from the 2022-23 team including seniors Olivia Cochran and Merissah Russell, redshirt sophomore Alexia Mobley and sophomore Nyla Harris. Senior transfer Eylia Love joined the Cardinals in January of 2023 but was not eligible to play the second semester of the season.
Taylor is one of five transfers that were added in the offseason. Taylor is a graduate transfer from UMass and she is joined by Hennie van Schaik (transfer from CSU-Bakersfield), Kiki Jefferson (graduate transfer from James Madison), Nina Rickards (graduate transfer from Florida) and Jayda Curry (transfer from Cal). The Cardinals also added two others to the roster in Eseosa Imafidon (will redshirt this season) and freshman Elif Istanbulluoglu.
Louisville opens the 2023-24 campaign on the road on Monday, November 6 when they take on Cincinnati. The Cardinals home opener will be on Sunday, November 12 against DePaul at 4 p.m. ET at the KFC Yum! Center.
