Thursday Highlands Sports Round-Up

Highlands Volleyball Bests Arch-Rival; Boys Soccer Loses

PHOTO: G. Michael Graham, Fort Thomas Matters. The Highlands players including CC Shick (bottom left), Laura Winkler (running forward) and Madison Clore (red jersey) get in position to receive a serve in a recent match.

These are the type of games the Highlands Bluebirds volleyball team hopes to see a lot of on a yearly basis.

Highlands (4-2 overall) took care of Campbell County, 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-10) on Senior Night in a county rivalry game. The two seniors for the Bluebirds are setters Laura Winkler and Maria Little. Little had two aces, eight digs and 11 assists with Winkler tallying seven kills, an assisted block with junior Lauren Buemi, 12 assists and 16 digs.

The Lady Camels have struggled out of the gate. They are 1-7 with six straight losses.

"They did a good job. In every set, they handled everything really well," said Katelyn Sallee, Highlands Head Coach. "I feel like our consistency was strong than it's probably been in any other match."

Highlands had 11 aces, 32 kills, one block, 29 assists and 47 digs. The Bluebirds had the 32 kills on 80 attempts and eight errors for a .300 hitting percentage.

Buemi also had three aces and 11 kills. Junior defensive specialist Madison Clore added 10 digs and two aces. Junior Honor Valentine had four digs and three aces.

Two sophomore outside hitters in Emma Daley and Bailey Houston moved up to varsity and saw action. Houston had three kills and two digs in two sets and Daley had one dig in one set.

"I love the returning varsity players. They're so welcoming to all of us newbies on the team," said Josie Steppe, Highlands junior. "They just really keep us into the flow and guide us into the intensity. They got us ready to play in the pregame. I think we're all on the same level intensity-wise ready to go play whenever."

Highlands plays two games in the annual Cake Classic in Fort Thomas on Saturday. The Bluebirds play Boone County at 9 a.m. and South Oldham at 11:30 a.m.

Soccer, Boys:

Covington Catholic 4, Highlands 0:

Entering the game, Highlands had gone 29 straight games against teams from Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties without a loss at 26-0-3 overall.

That changed Thursday at Tower Park. The last team to beat Highlands from those three counties came in a 3-1 defeat against Ryle in the 9th Region championship game on Oct. 21, 2017.

The blue Colonels (1-2-1) won for the first time this season scoring two goals in each half. They had 13 shots with 11 on goal. Highlands sophomore goalkeeper Connor Mathis had seven saves. Highlands had 11 shots with five on goal.

Neither team had any red cards. But Highlands drew two yellow cards and Covington Catholic one.

The Bluebirds will try to rebound Saturday at Bishop Brossart (4-1). Game time is 7:30 p.m.