NC volleyball beats Highlands for 16th time in 17 matches

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

There was no secret the juices would be flowing for this volleyball rivalry game.

But the team that settled down and played its game won this one soundly. That turned out to be the visiting Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds, 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-17) over the 36th District rival Highlands Bluebirds (10-19 overall, 3-1 district) on Monday.

This marked the 16th win in the last 17 meetings for NewCath (12-13, 3-0). The lone Highlands win since 2005 came in last year’s district championship.

NewCath dominated the net in the win. Nikki Kiernan recorded a couple blocks in the first game to get the Thoroughbreds on a roll.

“Even from last week, they’ve made progress from each game,” said Vicki Fleissner, NewCath Head Coach. “We wanted to make a statement. But we have to make sure we’re mentally ready the next time we face them and hopefully put together the same type of game.”

But Kiernan had plenty of help. Kiernan had five blocks and two kills with Keyaira Lankheit making eight kills and Rachel McDonald seven.

“It puts a lot of pressure on other teams because they need to stay ready,” McDonald said. “Our blocking is going to be fabulous. (Nikki’s blocks) got us up in the beginning.”

That forced Highlands to set the ball further away from the net. The Bluebirds tried a lot of tipping to no avail.

“We have to learn how to hit around the block and cover the block,” said Whitney Mulroney, Highlands Head Coach. “We did a great job trying to defend it and get it up. But we have to make sure we stay calm.”

Both teams struggled with serve reception. But NewCath did the better job passing the ball to setter Alyssa Maier. She had 23 assists with Madison Volk making 10 digs and Amanda Ruwe leading the team with three aces.

“We just have to be on our toes ready for short and deep serves no matter who we play because we practice getting them,” Volk said. “We had to stay focused. We always need to step up our game and play our hardest.”

NewCath recorded five aces, 26 digs, 27 kills, eight kills and 24 assists to 47 digs, 15 kills, six aces, two blocks and 15 assists for Highlands. Kaitlin Hall led the Bluebirds with 11 assists and four kills. Teammates Abby Schweitzer and Izzy Schultz followed with 12 digs and four aces.

The first game stayed close until Kiernan recorded two block kills and Ruwe had an ace to put NewCath up 13-8. Lankheit had another block kill to extend the NewCath lead to 19-10 before Highlands made a run to cut the margin to 24-20 before NewCath won the game on a Highlands net error.

“We struggled in the beginning getting the passes to the target so Alyssa couldn’t get anything going with the hitters because she was behind the 10-foot line,” Fleissner said. “We told them in the beginning of the game not to overplay, just go in and look for the same skills we look for every match. You can talk about that all you want. But it’s still an emotional charge for them.”

The second game also stayed close until another NewCath run. Highlands made several errors and Lankheit landed a kill to give the Thoroughbreds a 15-9 advantage. The Thoroughbreds led by as much as eight points before Maier had a block kills to give them the second game.

NewCath then scored the first three points of the third game and never looked back. McDonald had two kills and Ruwe had another ace to start the run. The Thoroughbreds led by as many as nine points in that contest.

“It’s such a huge rivalry that the girls get so psyched up for it then we just kind of panicked when one thing went wrong,” Mulroney said. “But this game doesn’t matter right now. What matters is later on. We got to see what we’re working with and how we need to prepare for it.”

NewCath wraps up district play today against Newport. Game time is 7:30 p.m. on the Hill.

Highlands does not play again until Thursday. The Bluebirds take on Lloyd Memorial in a 7 p.m. contest.