By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The Holy Cross girls basketball team began preseason practice Thursday ranked No. 1 in the Northern Kentucky preseason coaches poll and the imminent return of senior DMyah Williams is one reason why.
Last season, Williams was averaging 16 points and shooting 52 percent from the field when she suffered a torn ACL in the ninth game. She was out of action the rest of the season, but the Indians still won the All “A” Classic state championship, made it to the 9th Region final in the post-season playoffs and finished with a 28-6 record.
Despite the injury, Williams was recruited by several Division I college teams and made a commitment with Youngstown State in January.
The 5-foot-8 swing player was voted No. 4 among the top 10 returning players in Northern Kentucky going into her final high school season.
Williams was able to do drills during the team’s first practice session on Thursday, but coach Ted Arlinghaus said doctors have not cleared her for scrimmages.
“We’ll probably hold her out of all our pre-season scrimmages in the hopes that she’s ready to go at the start of the season,” Arlinghaus said.
Holy Cross didn’t have any seniors in their starting lineup last season. The returning players who had double-figure scoring averages are senior shooting guard Alyssa Arlinghaus (13.1), junior point guard Jai Johnson (13.0) and senior forward Riley Eberhard (10.5).
Junior guard Avery Sturgeon, the team-leader in 3-point goals (70), is also back. But the Indians owed much of their success to playing good defense, limiting opponents to 41.3 points per game. In the 9th Region final, Notre Dame pulled out a low-scoring 40-39 victory.
“We’ve got confidence going into this year and we’re looking to keep building off it,” coach Arlinghaus said. “We accomplished a lot last year, but we didn’t get all of our goals. We weren’t down at Rupp Arena (for the post-season state tournament), so we felt like we came up a little bit short.”
Dayton will rely on rushing attack against NewCath
Dayton’s undefeated football team is rushing for 311.9 yards per game, an average that ranks first in Class 1A and eighth in the state overall, according to the khsaa.org website.
The Greendevils (7-0) will be relying on their steadfast running game once again Friday when they host Newport Central Catholic (2-5) in a battle between the co-leaders in their district. The last time Dayton defeated the Thoroughbreds was 1998.
Dayton’s primary ball carriers are junior Malachi Kennedy and senior Kaden Anderson, who are averaging 116.9 and 91.1 yards per game, respectively. Kennedy is the second leading rusher in Class 1A in both total yards (818) and touchdowns (15). Anderson’s has 638 yards and six TDs.
In a district win over Bellevue last week, each of the running backs caught one pass. Kennedy’s reception resulted in a 20-yard touchdown.
NewCath snapped a three-game losing streak with a 17-6 win over Newport in last week’s other district game. The Thoroughbreds did all of their scoring in the final six minutes with the first touchdown coming on a 3-yard fumble return by Blake Ramerize.
St. Henry graduate among college team’s top scorers
St. Henry graduate Alivia Skidmore is the third leading scorer on the Western Kentucky University volleyball team that leads Conference USA going into a pair of weekend home matches against Middle Tennessee, the second team in the standings.
Skidmore has 157 kills, 20 service aces and 14 blocking points for a 197-point total. The 5-foot-10 junior outside hitter has played in all 66 sets for the Hilltoppers, who are 12-6 overall and 6-0 in conference matches. Middle Tennessee’s records are 14-4 and 5-1.
Last season, Skidmore was voted first-team all-conference. She was sixth in kills (370), seventh in total points (405.5) and 10th in hitting percentage (.295) in the final conference statistics.