By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Notre Dame advanced to the semifinals of the state volleyball tournament for the fourth consecutive year with a 3-0 win over Bowling Green in a quarterfinal match on Friday at George Rogers Clark High School.
The Pandas (31-7) will play North Oldham (26-11) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The other semifinal between Louisville Assumption (38-4) and Lexington Catholic (33-4) is set for 11 a.m. The winners will meet in the championship final at 7:30 p.m.
During the regular season, Notre Dame defeated North Oldham, 3-1, in September. The Mustangs have won 15 of 16 matches since then with the only loss coming against Beechwood, a team Notre Dame beat twice this season.
Notre Dame outscored Bowling Green (38-4), 25-16, 25-14, 25-17 in Friday’s quarterfinal sweep. The Pandas had a .352 hitting percentage with 11 kills by Grace Portwood, 10 by Teagan Kondik and nine by Audrey Dyas pacing the attack. The other team leaders were Portwood and Ellie Osterkamp with 13 digs each and Lizzy Larkins with 20 assists.
Notre Dame was state champion in 2022, state runner-up in 2023 and made it to the state semifinals last season. Assumption knocked off the Pandas in the last two state tournaments and won a regular season match between the two teams.
The Pandas have a 10-13 record in previous state championship matches with seven of their 13 loses coming to Assumption. They’re making a run at this year’s state title under new head coaches Madison Salkowski and Hannah Colvin.
Scott head football coach resigns after two seasons with team
Justin Franklin has resigned as Scott High School’s head football coach after his teams posted records of 3-7 and 2-8 the last two seasons and missed the Class 5A playoffs.
The last time the Eagles had a winning season was 2021 when they finished 8-5 under former head coach Eric Turner. He resigned after the 2022 season and the team had an interim head coach for one year before hiring Franklin, who remained living in Carroll County.
In an online post, Franklin said the daily commute to teach and coach at Scott had become an “impossibility” for him.
“Over the last two seasons we have broken offensive records, grown the roster, inspired facility upgrades and began the challenging process of developing underclassmen.” Franklin said. “There is no doubt that the program is in a better place today than is was two years ago.”
This year, Scott averaged the 349 yards and 30.8 points per game with senior quarterback Trey Cook running the offense. He finished among the state leaders with 251.3 passing yards per game.
But the defense gave up 42 points or more in five of seven losses and the Eagles did not earn a playoff berth for the third straight year after going 0-4 in district seeding games against Boone County, Conner, Cooper and Dixie Heights.
Notre Dame graduate named top defensive player in soccer
Notre Dame graduate Natalie Bain, a senior defender on the Xavier University women’s soccer team, was named Defensive Player of the Year in the Big East Conference for the second consecutive year.
Bain is a four-year starter for the 14-3-2 Musketeers, who will face Georgetown in the Big East championship match set for noon Sunday on ESPN+. She helped Xavier post shutouts in eight of their last 13 matches, including a 7-0 win over UConn in the conference semifinals on Thursday.
In October, Bain was among 24 players who participated in the U.S. Soccer under-23 women’s national team training camp. Prior to this season, she was ranked No. 8 on TopDrawerSoccer’s top 100 college players list.
Bain was named first-team all-state and USA Today National Player of the Year after her senior season at Notre Dame when the Pandas won the 2021 state tournament. The team finished with a 28-0-1 record and allowed only four goals. In the championship final, Bain scored the lone goal in her team’s 1-0 win over South Oldham.