Northern Kentucky Added, Pitt Postponed for Louisville Women's Basketball

(Photo of KFC Yum! Center: Sam Upshaw Jr./Courier Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Just when you think that the Louisville women's basketball program's luck with scheduling can't get any crazier, 2020 throws them one last curveball.

The program announced Thursday that have added Northern Kentucky to their 2020-21 schedule, and will host the Norse on Friday, Jan. 1 at 3:00 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center on ACC Network Extra. Attendance for this game will be limited to players and staff members' friends and families only.

"I'd like to thank Coach Whitaker and Ken Bothof for their willingness to schedule this game with such short notice," head coach Jeff Walz.

Conversely, the Atlantic Coast Conference also announced Thursday that the Cardinals' home game vs. Pitt on Thursday, Jan. 7 has been postponed. The postponement follows a positive test, subsequent quarantining and contact tracing within the Panthers' program, and it is the tenth game for Louisville to have been impacted due to COVID-19.

The Cardinals have not seen the floor since opening up ACC play with a resounding 73-49 win at Duke back on Wednesday, Dec. 9. Two days later, Louisville had to pause all team-related activities due to a positive COVID-19 test and accompanying contact tracing measures within the program.

Since then, Louisville's games on Sunday, Dec. 13 vs. UNC; Thursday, Dec. 17 vs. Florida State; Sunday, Dec. 20 vs. Miami; Sunday, Jan. 3 vs. Virginia; and now Thursday, Jan. 7 vs. Pitt have had to be postponed due to issues with the virus both within and outside the program. Only the game vs. UNC has received a makeup date, as the Cardinals are set to face Tar Heels on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Louisville road trip to Duke on New Year's Eve was also outright cancelled when the Blue Devils announced on Christmas they were cancelling the remainder of their 2020-21 season due to health and safety concerns stemming from COVID-19.

On top of adding a game vs. Northern Kentucky, the Cardinals also announced earlier today that their previously postponed game vs. Bellarmine had been rescheduled for Saturday, Jan. 2.

Louisville is off to a 5-0 start this season, and ranked as the No. 2 team in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll, behind only 7-0 Stanford. Northern Kentucky is 4-4 and currently on a four-game win streak under fifth year head coach Camryn Whitaker.

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