The 9th Region volleyball tournament got underway on Sunday at Ryle with all four quarterfinal games taking place.
By the end of the day, there were no surprises with Notre Dame Academy, Ryle, Beechwood and St. Henry advancing. The match of the day was Beechwood-Highlands, the Tigers needing five sets to take down the pesky Bluebirds.
Tuesday’s semifinals will be Notre Dame vs Ryle at 5:30 p.m., Beechwood vs St. Henry at 7:30 p.m. Both matches will be back at Ryle.
Here’s what went down:
Beechwood 3, Highlands 2 (25-20, 22-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11)
(By Josh Kalb)
The final two 9th Region volleyball quarterfinal games featured four teams inside the state’s top 25, according to the Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association, No. 25 Highlands faced No. 4 Beechwood and No. 8 St. Henry took on No. 22 Conner.
Down 2-1, Beechwood’s (33-5) season was hanging by a thread.
Two sets later, the Tigers had turned a near end into a new beginning. They battled all the way back to win a five-set thriller, snapping their regional tournament drought and earning their first victory in it since 2017.
Between the third and fourth sets, Beechwood coach Matt Long had a message for his team, and it was one that clearly resonated.
“The message I gave them was that there’s a reason they play five games and that we were going to push it to five,” Long said. “I believed in them and what they could accomplish if they worked as a team and played together. When we play together as a team, it’s hard to beat us.”
The Tigers responded with resilience. With the fourth set tied at 18, they rattled off a 7-2 run to stay alive and force a decisive fifth set. From there, Beechwood carried the energy and never trailed again, finishing off the comeback and celebrating a long-awaited regional win.
The saying “big time players make big time plays in big time games” rang true for Beechwood.
Junior Isabel O’Brien embodied that mentality, finishing with 19 kills while showing leadership. For her, it was about more than just advancing in the tournament—it was about the seniors.
“I was really thinking about how much my seniors mean to me,” O’Brien said. “If this was our last match, I was going to leave everything out on the floor. Every point I was going to hustle for them. I wanted them to have the longest season possible because they’re my sisters.”
Beechwood’s balance helped make that possible. Fellow juniors Macy Armstrong and Rachel Lewandowski added 10 and 9 kills respectively, while setter Skylr Estep kept the offense moving with 25 assists. The Tigers’ energy built as the match wore on, with every point adding to the sense that something special was happening.
Earlier this month, on Oct. 2, Beechwood defeated Highlands (23-10) in Fort Thomas in straight sets (25-22, 25-15, 28-26). That win gave the Tigers confidence, but it also motivated Highlands, who felt they were close and had something to prove in the rematch.
“The first time we played them they beat us in three sets, with 25-22 and 28-26, so we were right there,” Highlands coach James DeLong said. “We felt we could beat these guys. We just had to eliminate some errors. We didn’t pass well in the first game. Tonight we passed better, and that gave us a chance.”
Highlands showed its improvement by rallying after dropping the first set, winning the next two to put pressure on Beechwood. But when it came to closing out the match, DeLong said it came down to mindset—tentative versus aggressive.
That’s when the Tigers found another gear.
“As a coach who’s been doing this for a long time, I try to act like I’m not panicking,” Long said with a laugh. “But inside, I feel like I lost a few years of my life. The girls played with resolve. In our timeouts, we kept telling them not to play scared, to stay aggressive, and that’s what got us the win.”
After back-to-back losses in the region quarterfinals the past two years, Beechwood finally broke through and will move on to face St. Henry in the 9th Region semifinals.
Highlands ends its season at 23-10 and says goodbye to seven seniors.
St. Henry 3, Conner 0 (25-23, 27-25, 25-17)
(By Josh Kalb)
St. Henry (23-15) is right where it knows it should be.
Coming into its 9th Region quarterfinal meeting with Conner (26-10), the Crusaders had won their previous four regional quarterfinal games and entered as the defending two-time regional runner-up. On Monday night, they looked every bit the part of a team familiar with the stage, handling business once again with a straight-sets victory over the Lady Cougars.
The Crusaders are no strangers to expectations. Every year, they’re one of the teams to beat, and every year, they seem to meet or come close to meeting those standards. They know the target is on their back — and they embrace it.
“It’s all friendly competition, but they know when you put on a St. Henry jersey, people are out to get you and don’t want you to advance,” Crusaders head coach Maureen Kaiser said. “I do have five seniors and am sophomore heavy, but they have been critical players on those teams. They know what it takes in the region tournament.”
That experience and confidence showed in the win. Whether senior or sophomore, each player contributed to another composed, poised performance when it mattered most.
Sophomore standout Kenadi Sieg reached a major career milestone during the match, recording her 1,000th career dig. While she’s a good representation of the talent and production from the underclassmen, there’s support by a core of veterans who have been through plenty of big moments before.
“It can definitely help,” senior Madi Demler said. “We have to keep our composure. We have a mix of both older and younger girls, and the girls with more experience lift up the sophomores and juniors who might not have as much experience.”
The Crusaders needed that poise early. The first set went back and forth, with Conner pushing St. Henry throughout before the Crusaders closed it out, 25-23. The second set followed a similar pattern, with the Lady Cougars refusing to go away quietly. St. Henry again found the late points it needed, pulling out a tight 27-25 win to take control of the match.
Even though Conner couldn’t quite finish either of the first two sets, head coach Doug Rabe saw encouraging signs from a young group still learning how to handle the pressure of postseason volleyball.
“A lot of my girls are sophomores and juniors. About five of them, this was the first time they’ve been in region,” Rabe said. “I think the nerves got to us, where St. Henry has more experienced girls who have been through it. I think it showed tonight whenever we hit some of those pressure situations. One or two points wins or loses the game, and I thought that’s where they executed better than we did.”
With two sets already in hand, St. Henry showed its composure in the third and final set, jumping out to an early lead and never letting go. The Crusaders led by as much as 24-14 before closing it out, 25-17, to advance once again to the semifinals.
Conner’s season comes to an end at 26-10. The Lady Cougars graduate four seniors but return a strong nucleus of 12 players, including their top two kill leaders, sophomore Charlotte Patton and junior Shylyn Koerber, who also ranked second on the team in assists.
For St. Henry, the victory sets up a top-10 showdown in the semifinals against Beechwood. The Crusaders will look to rely once again on their experience and steady play as they aim for their third straight trip to the region championship match.
“Definitely take a break and calm ourselves down,” Demler said. “Tomorrow at practice, we’ll work on what needs to be worked on and get back into our rhythm.”
Notre Dame 3, Dixie Heights 0 (25-3, 25-13, 25-6)
(By Matthew Supinger)
Notre Dame (27-7) wasted no time getting to Tuesday’s semifinals with a straight set victory over Dixie Heights (8-19).
The trail was getting rough early on for the Colonels, as a service error to open up the scoring and miscues by Dixie would be the story of the first set. Strong Notre Dame kills led to a bigger lead. Before the Colonels knew it, they found themselves in a 13-2 hole as they would take a timeout to regroup.
Dixie was finally able to stop the bleeding, as a service error from Notre Dame gave the Colonels their third point of the first set, making it 16-3. Notre Dame’s championship pedigree was on display in this set though, as the Pandas would go on a heater, ending the first set on a 9-0 run featuring multiple service aces from Kaia Tilden.
The second set saw more action to open up, as multiple Notre Dame service errors tied it up at six. Both teams would continue to throw punches throughout the set, as a service ace from Dixie put the score at 9-8.
The Pandas would begin another hot streak, as they would score seven straight featuring a kill from Emma Redinger that would push the score to 16-8. Notre Dame would keep up the offensive pressure, as a 9-5 run from them saw more Audrey Dyas domination, putting a bow on a second set victory, 25-13.
Punches from both teams would open up the third and final set of the match, tying it at 2-2 early. However, Notre Dame did not look back after that point, as they used Dixie errors and scrambles to capitalize and jump out to a 15-5 lead.
A Notre Dame service error would be the worst part of the rest of that set, as eight straight points would send the Colonels home and move the Pandas one step closer to their potential repeat after another straight set victory.
Ryle 3, Newport Central Catholic 0 (25-12, 25-18, 25-17)
(by Matthew Supinger)
The next of the quarterfinal favorites to take the court was Ryle (22-13), who hadn’t lost to NewCath since 2011 and hadn’t dropped a set to the Thoroughbreds since 2019. Past fortunes met future ones as the Raiders won again in straight sets.
Both teams opened up the first set with some back and forth hits, before Layna Wilkinson led her Raiders to an 8-2 run, putting the score at 12-4. The Thoroughbreds tried to keep pace with the Raiders, but they were no match, as Ashley Towner joined in on the fun, earning herself a couple of kills during the 13-8 run that gave Ryle the first set victory.
The second set played out much of the same, as an early 2-2 tie would be broken by Thoroughbred stumbles and mistakes that Ryle used to give themselves a 9-3 lead.
Newport Central Catholic (19-17) would cut the lead to 14-12, courtesy of Ryle errors. A Raider serving ace and four Thoroughbred errors would be the story that would close the door on a horse race in the second set, as Ryle would win a hard fought second set, 25-18.
The third and final set saw the same type of action as a 4-4 early tie would be broken by a 4-1 Raider run capitalized by a kill. NewCath would do as they had continued to, by keeping it close up until a Ryle score and three Thoroughbred violations made the score 18-13. Ryle showed their competitive grit they have all season long, as they staved off another late Thoroughbred push to win the final set and the match on a 7-4 run, capped off by a Ryle power push through a block at the net to win 25-17.