The LINK nky Team of the Week for Oct. 9-15 presented by Ortho Cincy is the Conner volleyball team.
Conner showed up in the polls early and often, blowing away the competition and collecting over 80% of the vote. The Cougars gathered over 1,300 votes in earning the recognition.
Earning Conner Team of the Week honors was the way they closed out the regular season. The record-setting team made even more history on Sunday, winning the first region tournament game in program history with a victory over Highlands.
CONNER VOLLEYBALL
The Cougars finished off their most successful regular season this century with a 26-7 record, the most wins in a regular season since KHSAA started keeping win totals on their website in 2000.
Conner went 2-0 in the final week of the regular season with wins over Beechwood and McCracken County. They followed that up with a runner-up finish in the 33rd District, defeating Cooper before losing to Ryle in the district championship.
In the 3-1 (19-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-20) victory over Beechwood on Oct. 10, the team had 52 kills, 17 blocks, 49 assists, 84 digs and nine aces. Senior Lilly Hamburg put down 23 kills to earn the 1,000th of her career and Aubrey Depenbrock recorded 31 assists for the 1,000th of her career. Anna Hamilton started the Conner offensive flow with 24 digs. Peyton Walker had 16 kills and seven blocks with Jordan Ransdell adding 17 assists and three aces. Carly Nehus added to the balance with 11 digs and seven kills. Maddie Leiprecht had 11 digs and two aces with Bailey Morris recording nine digs and two aces. Annika Berwanger added four blocks.
Conner also took down McCracken County at Ryle on Oct. 14, 2-1 (25-16, 15-25, 25-12). The Cougars had 26 kills, 23 assists, 35 digs, 11 blocks and seven aces in the win.
Hamilton and Depenbrock started things with nine digs each and Depenbrock added 11 assists. Ransdell had eight assists. Hamburg and Walker had 11 and eight kills, respectively, to go with three blocks each. Hamburg and Morris had two aces each with Jordan Potter adding three assisted blocks. Maddie Leiprecht had six digs and Nehus dug up six to go with three kills and McKenzie Deatherage had four kills.
Conner followed up the district championship with even more history on Sunday, winning their first ever game in the region tournament with a 3-1 win over Highlands.
Congratulations to our other nominees as well: Ryle boys soccer team, Bishop Brossart boys soccer team. Notre Dame Academy soccer team and Walton-Verona football team.
Look for the new LINK nky Team of the Week nominees for Oct. 16-22 online soon at linknky.com.
Got a team you have in mind? Please send nominations to edennison@linknky.com.
