Cooper ends Highlands volleyball season

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

ERLANGER – The Highlands Ladybirds volleyball team tried to take away the power hitting game of the Cooper Lady Jaguars.

But that opened up the tipping game and Highlands (13-23) had no answers for it in the 9th Region quarterfinals Wednesday at St. Henry. Cooper (19-12) won 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-20) to advance to today’s 9th semifinals against the hosts.

Cooper recorded 41 kills, 29 assists, seven aces and blocked 10 to 25 kills, 17 assists, four aces and six blocks for Highlands. Julia Edmonds led the Lady Jaguars with 11 kills and Taylor Zingsheim had nine with Carley Powers adding eight. Hannah Reid led Cooper with four blocks with Powers and Edmonds making three each.

“We were doing fine with the size with our blocking. (Tipping) is all they did to us,” said Whitney Mulroney, Highlands head coach. “They’re a good tipping team. The tipping just deflated them.”

Seven different Cooper players added and four had aces. Setter Tonya McDine led the way with 14 assists and Julia Klute recorded three aces.

Highlands did not go away without a fight. Sophomores Jessica Ginter and Kaitlin Hall had great games. Ginter had 13 kills and five blocks and Hall recorded 16 assists. Senior Katie Van Curen recorded 14 digs in her last match. Junior Mallory Seidel followed with five kills.

The first game stayed close for about 10 serves. Klute landed a kill to put Cooper up for good at 4-3. Brianne Dunn finished the game with a kill for the Lady Jaguars.

Highlands led for part of the second game. The Ladybirds grew a 5-1 lead behind kills from Seidel and Ginter. But Cooper came back and took a 9-6 lead behind two Klute aces. The lead ballooned to 13-6 at one point as Highlands struggled with its passing game. Edmonds ended that game with a kill.

The Ladybirds did not give up scoring the most points of any of the game in the third game. But Cooper scored the first two points and never trailed. Mulroney and staff took two timeouts, but could not weather the storm. The match ended on a Highlands long hit.

“They fought as hard as they could,” Mulroney said of her squad. “They’re a decent team.”

Highlands hopes to have more girls play club volleyball on a year-round basis. Region powers Notre Dame and St. Henry have that.

The Ladybirds graduate five seniors. They are Van Curen, Brooke Hamilton, Sarah Schweitzer, Sydney Lindeman and Lauren Tallon.

“The seniors did great,” Mulroney said. “They went out playing hard. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Highlands still won its first district championship in seven years. The Ladybirds return a good nucleus to build around in Ginter and Hall. Seidel, Frances Tracy and Abby Schweitzer will be seniors next year.