By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
High school volleyball got under way this week with five 9th Region teams among the top 25 in the Kentucky Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll and two local players ranked among the nation’s top 25 seniors.
The last three state championships were won by 9th Region teams. Notre Dame took the state title last year and in 2020. St. Henry became one of the few small-school teams to win the state tournament in 2021.
In the preseason poll, Notre Dame was ranked fourth with eight first-place votes. The top three teams are Louisville Assumption, Louisville Sacred Heart and Lexington Dunbar, the runner-up in last year’s state tournament.
Notre Dame lost the starting libero and two of the top three hitters on last year’s team to graduation. This year’s team has only one senior on the roster and will rely on juniors Ava Tilden and Riley McCloskey at the net.
The other local teams in the statewide rankings were No. 11 St. Henry, No. 12 Ryle, No. 17 Cooper and No. 23 Conner. In last year’s 9th Region tournament, Notre Dame defeated St. Henry, 3-1, in the semifinals and Ryle, 3-0, in the final.
St. Henry has six seniors returning from last season. One of them is Alivia Skidmore, who was ranked No. 24 among seniors in the nation by prepvolleyball.com. She led the Crusaders in kills (394) last year and has made a commitment with Western Kentucky.
Holy Cross senior Julia Hunt was ranked No. 23 in the nation. She’s a University of Washington recruit who led the state in total kills (664) and ranked second in kills per set (6.57) last season.
Skidmore and Hunt were both voted first-team all-state by Kentucky coaches last season. The returning players voted second-team all-state include Ryle senior outside hitter/setter Kiana Dinn and St. Henry senior libero Elizabeth Tabeling.
Region basketball tournament MVP makes college commitment
Cooper senior guard Liz Freihofer, who was named most valuable player in the 9th Region girls basketball tournament last March, has made a verbal commitment with Eastern Kentucky University.
Freihofer averaged 10.3 points and 3.2 rebounds last season. In the region final, she scored seven of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter to help the Jaguars get past Ryle, 48-42, and claim their second straight championship.
Going into her senior season, Freihofer has career totals of 1,054 points and 506 rebounds in 116 games over the last four seasons. Cooper has compiled an 80-38 record with her on the team.
Freihofer’s older sister, Kay, was named most valuable player in the 2022 9th Region tournament. They are the only sisters to ever win the award in the history of the tournament that began in 1975.
Eastern Kentucky lost in the first round of the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament and finished with an 18-14 record last season. A knee injury kept Ryle graduate Brie Crittendon out of action, but she’s expected to return this season as a redshirt sophomore.
Highlands girls soccer player breaks team record in career goals
Highlands girls soccer player Laney Smith got four goals in the first two games on the team’s schedule this week to become the Bluebirds all-time leader in goals scored with 76.
Smith finished the last three seasons as the Bluebirds’ scoring leader. On last year’s 9th Region championship team, she netted 31 goals with nine assists for 71 points and was named second-team all-state among players in regions 9-16.
She had 20 goals and 13 assists for 53 points during her sophomore season. As a freshman, she provided 21 goals and eight assists for 50 points on another 9th Region championship team.
According to statistics posted on the khsaa.org website, the most career goals scored by a Northern Kentucky girls soccer player is 116 by Ryielan Hamilton of Boone County from 2015-18.
CovCath grad among college football team’s top returning starters
Covington Catholic graduate Jack Coldiron is one of 19 returning starters on the Miami of Ohio football team that will open the 2023 season on Saturday, Sept. 1 at the University of Miami in Florida.
Last year, Coldiron was a starting tight end in five games for the RedHawks, who finished with a 6-7 record following a 24-20 loss to Alabama-Birmingham in the Bahamas Bowl. The 6-foot-5, 251-pound junior caught 24 passes for 286 yards and one touchdown in 13 games.
In the Mid-America Conference preseason coaches poll, Miami was voted No. 2 in the Eastern Division behind Ohio University. The Redhawks were 4-4 in division games last season with three of the losses coming by six points or less.