Wednesday Sports Briefs

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
The Highlands Ladybirds soccer team ended a four-game winless string with a 3-1 victory over the host Boone County Lady Rebels (2-5) on Wednesday.
Highlands moved to 2-3-1 overall. The Ladybirds had been outscored 9-0 in losses to state powers St. Henry, Notre Dame and Lexington Catholic before tieing Simon Kenton, 2-2 on Monday.
Freshman forward Brooklynn Rivers continued her excellent season with two more goals in the win. She has five for the season. Teammate Allyson Bridewell had the other Ladybird goal.
Jesse Daley and Sarah Owen once again split time at goalkeeper for Highlands. Owen made two saves and Daley made none.
Highlands does not play again until Tuesday. The Ladybirds travel to Alexandria to face Bishop Brossart in a 5:45 p.m. contest.

NCC volleyball bests Scott:
The Newport Central Catholic Lady Breds volleyball team traveld to Taylor Mill and beat the Scott Lady Eagles, 3-2 (25-22, 22-25, 17-25, 25-20, 15-11).
NewCath (4-7 overall) saw Senior Libero Maria Froendhoff record 29 digs and setter Alyssa Maier make 35 assists. Nikki Kiernan and Abbie Lukens led the Lady Breds with 12 and 10 kills respectively.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for NewCath. On the other side, Andrea Sullivan's Lady Eagles fell to 3-9.
NewCath plays again today at 7:30 p.m. against Campbell County.

Lady Breds drop first contest:
It came down to a shootout in the 9th/10th Region All Ä Soccer Tournament on Wednesday.
Newport Central Catholic and Bishop Brossart battled to a scoreless tie after regulation. But the Lady Mustangs (4-3 overall) edged the Lady Breds, 4-3 in the shootout to take the game 1-0.
Erin Ackerson had six saves at goalkeeper for the Lady Breds.
The Lad Breds (4-1) take on visiting Villa Madonna at 5:30 p.m. today.

Highlands Girls Soccer Drubbed by St. Henry

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

The Highlands Girls Soccer Team Looks On As Coach Tommy Kearns Surveys The Field

The final score did not look good for the hosts.

But there were just two things that separated the women’s soccer teams in the St. Henry Crusaders’ 5-0 win over the Highlands Bluebirds on Monday at Tower Park.

That is Libby Leedom and the abilities to finish shots.

Leedom, the 5-foot-8-inch senior midfielder/forward, turned in a hat trick with three goals and an assist in the win. Leedom, a University of Dayton commit, scored 23 goals and had 13 assists last year and helped the Crusaders to the 2010 state championship. Highlands tried many things against Leedom out of its 4-4-2 (defender-midfielder-forward) attack.

“She is the front-runner for (Kentucky) Ms. Soccer for a reason,” Highlands head coach Tommy Kearns said of Leedom. “She’s an outstanding player. We had a game plan and she fought through it. She’s just very difficult to stop.”

St. Henry outshot Highlands, 10-5 and converted 50 percent of the shots. Crusader goalkeeper Morgan Potts turned back all five Bluebird shots.

In the other goal, Sara Owen played the first half for Highlands (1-1 overall) and made two saves. Senior Jesse Daley took over in the second half and made three saves.

St. Henry improved to 2-1 with the win. Crusader head coach Steve Lorenz told his girls this marked the first time he’d ever won at Tower Park as a head coach. Prior to coming to St. Henry, Lorenz spent four seasons as the head coach at Boone County.

Leedom scored her first two goals with 29:19 and 5:46 left in the first half. Teammate Jenna Litzler scored her first of two goals with less than two remaining in the half. Leedom made the hat trick with 27:17 left in the game and Litzler scored her second with 21:05 left in the half.

“We’re younger than we’ve been in about four or five years” Lorenz said. “I’ve got about six sophomores and a freshman on the roster. (Leedom) gives us a wider margin for error early in the season so they get a chance to grow.”

Highlands had plenty of chances to avert the shutout in the game’s final 20 minutes. Allyson Bridewell hit one off the top of the crossbar with 19:06 remaining. Brooklynn Rivers had a big shot deflected wide by Potts with 14:40 left in the game and had another one go off the crossbar with 3:26 left in the game.

St. Henry had nine free kicks to three for Highlands. Only one yellow card came in the game. It was against Highlands.

“If any of those (shots) go in, it helps us on the score line,” Kearns said. “We created scoring opportunities. It’s just that none of them went into the back of the net. Credit their keeper (Potts). She made some excellent saves. She was definitely a difference-maker for them.”

Highlands then continues its tough week back at Tower Park against Lexington Catholic at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Lady Knights are 1-1-2 with a 4-2 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday.

Weekend Sports Report

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

The Highlands men’s soccer team edged Pendleton County, 4-3 on Saturday at Tower Park to improve to 2-0 overall.

Ethan Schmits led the Bluebirds with two goals. Teammates Devin Dupont and Chris Garbig had one each. Andrew Barnes, Mitchell Gesenhues and Jordan Jarvis had one assist a piece for Highlands.

The Wildcats (1-1) saw three different players score. Harper Aven, Travis Brinkman and Max Dewald had goals for Pendleton Countyh with Brinkman, MacKenzie Colvin and Jacob Farwell notching one assist each.

Highlands plays in the Kentucky Cup at Louisville Ballard this week. The Bluebirds open up with Louisville Collegiate on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

Big week for Highlands women’s soccer:

The Highlands women’s soccer team will take on some tough competition this week.

It begins tonight with a battle against the St. Henry Crusaders at 7:30 p.m. at Tower Park. The Crusaders are 1-1 with a 5-0 win over Beechwood and a 2-1 loss at Woodford County on Saturday.

The Crusaders return 2011 Kentucky Player of the Year Libby Leedom, a 5-foot-8-inch midfielder/forward. Leedom, a University of Dayton commit, scored 23 goals and had 13 assists and led the Crusaders to the 2010 state championship.

Highlands then faces Lexington Catholic at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Lady Knights are 1-1-1 with a 4-2 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday. They tied Louisville Sacred Heart, 1-1 but knocked off Louisville Assumption, 2-0.

The week concludes with a trip to Park Hills to face the defending state champion Notre Dame Pandas on Saturday at 7 p.m. Notre Dame graduated a lot from last year, but does return senior all-state goalkeeper Olivia Voskuhl, senior striker Ellie Eckerle and senior defender Alex Lonnemann.

NewCath soccer gets first win:

After two close calls, the Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds soccer team dented the win column with a 2-0 win over Covington Holy Cross on Saturday.

NewCath (1-2) dropped a tough one to Pendleton County, 1-0 on Thursday.

The Thoroughbreds play in the All “A” Regional Tournament at St. Henry later in the week.