Thursday Sports Results

Bluebirds End Winless Skid in Final Minutes

PHOTO: Allen Ramsey, DWCPhoto.com. Highlands senior Lindsey Meyer makes a move against Bishop Brossart on Thursday. Meyer is the school's all-time career points leader with 170 after recording two goals and an assist in the 6-0 win.

It came in the last few minutes.

But that hustle play from senior midfielder Keegan Brewer ultimately ended the three-game 0-1-2 winless streak for the Highlands Bluebirds boys soccer team (13-1-3 overall). Brewer put in a deflection off a free kick from senior Carter Holmes with 2:30 left in regulation to lift the Bluebirds to a 1-0 victory over the Cincinnati (Ohio) LaSalle Lancers.

"It's going to boost our chemistry back up to what it was at the beginning of the season," Brewer said. "Hopefully, we can continue winning from here on out. Carter put it on frame, which is good. The goalkeeper muffed it and I just followed the shot and had an easy tap-in."

Highlands out-shot LaSalle, 25-4 including 6-4 on goal. Highlands senior Will Burnham stopped all four Lancer shots.

"We've been playing high-level competition all year," said Chad Niedert, Highlands Head Coach. "We started to grow confident that we can step toe-to-toe with anyone in the state even across state lines as well. We had to kind of reach down and refocus. LaSalle is a quality team. Whether scouting, watching film or whatever, teams realize we have a lot to bring offensively overall and teams are a little more willing to sit back and defend us. We're starting to learn how to break teams down, be pretty dominant-possession and use that to create the opportunities."

Highlands next plays Tuesday against Beechwood. Game time is 8 p.m.

Volleyball:
Highlands 3, Covington Holy Cross 0:

The Bluebirds (19-6 overall) handled the visiting Indians (17-9), 25-20, 25-15, 26-24. They moved to 10-4 in 9th Region action.

"We did a really nice job. In the first set, we were a little slow starting," said Katelyn Sallee, Highlands head Coach. "We were clean, but we weren't real aggressive. I feel that halfway through that set, we just kicked it into gear, which was good. In the second set, we started off strong and finished strong. The third set was tough. They came back, blocked well and really tested us on our block coverage. It was a tight third set. But we were able to finish it out."

Highlands dug up 46 balls and served 14 aces. Senior Olivia Gessner led the way there recording 16 digs and four aces. Senior Margot Seidel had another solid all-around game with 14 kills, three aces and eight digs. Juniors Audrey Graves and Brooke Biltz added nine digs each.

Highlands had 36 assists. Graves led the way there with 35.

The Bluebirds hit .176 as a team recording 36 kills and 18 errors on 102 attempts. Freshman CC Shick had nine kills and junior Ava Hockney had seven with sophomore Laura Winkler recording five.

Highlands is trying to improve its blocking going into the final part of the season. The Bluebirds recorded three in this game. Hockney had two solo blocks and Shick one.

"During practice, we've tried different things (such as) blocking line and cross (hits)," said Sophia Sarakatsannis, Highlands freshman. "We've thought of different ways that we could get out blocking up there because we know we'll need it (against strong hitting teams). We've been working on our defense changing things and figuring out what would work best."

Highlands plays in the Jefferson County Invitational Volleyball Tournament starting Friday in Louisville. The Bluebirds take on Owensboro Apollo at 7:30 p.m. and Collins at 8:30 p.m.

Soccer, Girls:
Highlands 6, Bishop Brossart 0:

The Bluebirds (13-4 overall) recorded their 10th shut-out of the season after game time changed to 4:30 p.m. at Tower Park. The game was originally scheduled for 5 p.m. at Pendery Park.

"To start off, it was a little rusty," said Alex Dean, Highlands Head Coach. "It's only 30 minutes. But right after school, it's pretty tough to get your mind ready for a game. After that, it kind of opened up a little bit and we were connecting more than we usually have and that was a good site to see possession-wise playing one, two, touch then moving off the ball."

Highlands out-shot Bishop Brossart, 29-3 including 19-2 on goal. Junior goalkeeper Maggie Hinegardner made two saves for the Bluebirds.

"We have school and we're coming basically coming from school 30 to 45 minutes straight to the game to warm up so we definitely used this game to try to get our minds used to getting more focused on the game earlier in the day as opposed to later at night," said Katelynn Helminiak, Highlands junior defender. "Our communication actually has been pretty good all year. We have our games where it's really good and we have our games where it's a little less. But the communication definitely has been growing."

Senior forward Lindsey Meyer and junior forward Maria Wiefering both had two goals and an assist for five points each. Meyer has 20 goals and seven assists on the year for 47 points and Wiefering has 13 goals and eight assists for 34 points.

Meyer surpassed the school record for most points in a career with 170 points one day after breaking the record for most career goals. She has 67 goals and 36 assists for her career. Former assistant Stephanie Sandfoss-Graves had 64 goals and 39 assists for a total of 167 career points.

Junior forwards Jordan Halpin and Maria Broering had the other two goals. That marked Broering's fifth goal of the season and the third one for Halpin.

Sophomore forward/midfielder Kenzie Nehus had two assists and senior defender/forward Gwen Gorman had the other one. Nehus is third on the team in points with six goals and eight assists on the season for 20. Gorman has four assists this year.

Highlands travels to Ryle on Saturday. Game time is 4 p.m.

Golf, Girls:
Highlands Season Ends in Region:

The Bluebirds finished fourth in the Region 6 Tournament at Twin Oaks Golf Course in California (Kentucky) shooting 377 as a team. This marked a one-spot and 16-stroke improvement from last year's fifth-place finish with a 393.

Highlands junior Clara Bushman led the way shooting a 90 to tie for 13th overall out of 56 golfers that finished. Sophomore Ellie Rowland tied for 18th with 92. The other two Highlands scorers in senior Olivia Hopper and freshman KJ Toole shot 97 and 98 respectively to finished 25th and tie for 26th respectively. Senior Abie Wira also participated for the Bluebirds.

Ryle won it for the third straight year shooting a 337 and region power Notre Dame finished runner-up with a 342 to also qualify for state. Ryle finished third in the state tournament last year.

The top two teams and top four individuals not on the winning teams qualify for state. Ryle's Olivia Diapolo won medalist honors shooting a 75.

Highlands graduates four seniors from the team. They are Hopper, Wira, Gwen Culyer and Marlena Auch. But the Bluebirds will build around Toole, Bushman, Rowland and the likes of seventh-grader Bailey Markus, junior Megan Farney and freshman Lindey Lorenz next year.