Jim DeLong did not hesitate to point out the issue for Highlands in the second set of the 36th District championship on the Hill against Newport Central Catholic.
Their were 15 hitting errors sailing long or wide and three serving errors into the net. DeLong even added it was impressive the Bluebirds still had a chance to win the set despite that. They did lose that set, but came back to win the next two sets for a seventh straight district championship with a 3-1 (25-13, 24-26, 28-26, 25-16) win.
“We want our kids to be aggressive,” DeLong said. “We want them to trust their arm swing. We want them contacting high and work the ball passed the blocks. We want them to hit the spots on the floor and make the defenders dig.”
After pulling off a tight one in the third game, Highlands (20-15) put a lot of balls down to pull away, especially in the fourth game. The Bluebirds had 42 kills overall. Senior Rachel Ossege led Highlands with 14 kills. Sophomore Liz Perkins had a big game in the impressive fourth set on her way to 11 kills.
“You just have to know where you are on the court and have court awareness,” Perkins said. “It all starts with a good pass, which our defense did a good job of doing. We took the energy from the third game and pulled through.”
Things began on defense for Highlands with 94 digs. Sophomore libero Hayden Gessner led the way with 20 with Ellie Mohr and Annie Ellison digging up 16 and 15 then Ava Muzumdar adding 10 digs. Gessner and Ellison made the All-tournament team.
That allowed tournament Most Valuable Player Ella Cox and Muzumdar to put up 23 and 14 assists. Muzumdar surprised NewCath with some setter dumps in the third and fourth games.
“We knew that we had to take care of our business from the start and the second set was a little rough,” Cox said. “But after that, we picked it up and we shut them down.”
Highlands capitalized on NewCath’s struggles with serve-receive in the first game, recording a number of aces on the way to 13 total. Maggie Carnohan had five aces and Muzumdar had four.
Highlands came back in the second game and saw Abby Kiefer land some kills to build a 12-7 lead, but NewCath came back having some success with the tip kills. Lucy Simons gave the Thoroughbreds a 22-21 lead. The Bluebirds came back to tie it twice before two errors gave NewCath the second game.
The third game went back-and-forth. Both teams had chances at game point before Ossege landed a tip kill to give the Bluebirds the win.
“It was very gratifying to be honest. NewCath put up a heck of a fight,” DeLong said. “They were outscrapping us. Their defense was pesky. Everything we were doing, they were digging up. We had some kids step up when we needed them to and I think that was the big difference for us.”
The Bluebirds improved picking up the tips as the game progressed. They even recorded five blocks as a team with Ossege record leading the way with three. Carnohan and Lyla Bottom also had some big blocks in the win.
“We just had to read and realize where they were going to go,” Ellison said. “Once we figured it out whether it was dumping or putting the ball in corners, it worked out well.”
NewCath (17-19) had 78 digs, 28 kills, 27 assists, six aces and three blocks in the loss. Kori Reckers led NewCath with 21 digs, 12 assists, five kills and two aces and sister Jordyn Reckers dug up 12 balls. Vivi Fassler had 10 digs and 10 assists and Simons had 10 digs and eight kills. Elise Fowler dug up eight balls and Reese McCloskey collected seven kills.
“They’ve put it together and come a long way as a team. Highlands did a great job putting the ball away and making adjustments to our defense,” said Angie Reckers, NewCath head coach. “We found ourselves constantly trying to make adjustments. They had an answer every time.”
Kori Reckers and Simons made the all-tournament team for NewCath along with Newport senior DeAyjah White, Dayton junior McKenzie Sullivan and Bellevue junior Jayda Dowell.
Highlands won all three meetings between the two this year and has won 14 of the last 15 between the two. NewCath’s last district championship came in 2016.
“We kept fighting. We had some senior leadership step up there and just really wanted it. They wanted it so bad that they psyched themselves out,” Angie Reckers said. “Other sets could have been like the first set, so that shows the maturity they’ve gained throughout the season. They reset themselves and played the best volleyball they could.”
Both teams advance to the 9th Region tournament that starts Sunday at Cooper. Highlands will play Conner, Dixie Heights or the loser of Thursday’s game between Beechwood and Notre Dame. NewCath will play Ryle, St. Henry or the winner of the Beechwood-Notre Dame game.