By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
In the opening game of the season for both teams, Campbell County edged Boone County, 2-1, in a fast-pitch softball pitchers duel on March 19. With two weeks left in the regular season, both of those teams picked up their 19th win in district seeding games on Monday and have established themselves as top contenders for regional titles.
Boone County pitcher Karys Black. (Photo from team’s Facebook page)
Campbell County defeated Calvary Christian, 15-0, on Monday to run its record to 19-1, the best in the 10th Region. The Camels have won 16 straight games since their lone loss to Anderson (Ohio), 2-0, on March 28.
Campbell County senior pitcher Jessica Walsh has an 18-1 record and 0.51 ERA with 206 strikeouts in 122 innings. One of the team’s leading hitters is senior outfielder McKinlee Miller, who went 4-for-4 in Monday’s game to raise her season average to .456.
Boone County got past Ryle, 8-7, on Monday to push its record to 19-3, the best in the 9th Region. The score was tied, 4-4, going into the seventh inning and the Rebels pulled out the win even though they gave up five unearned runs in the game.
Boone County sophomore pitcher Karys Black has a 14-3 record and 2.07 ERA with 124 strikeouts in 105 innings. The Rebels have a .369 team batting average with four players at .418 or higher. Black is batting .431 with a team-high nine home runs and 29 RBI.
Campbell County has clinched the top seed in the 37th District playoffs that will begin May 20. Boone County needs to play its final 33rd District seeding game against Conner on Tuesday before those pairings can be decided.
Holmes names new girls head basketball coach, Ludlow needs one
One girls high school basketball coach was hired and another one resigned in Northern Kentucky last week.
Alissa Brown was named head coach at Holmes on Wednesday. One day later, Ludlow announced it was taking applications to replace Micah Montecalvo, who is stepping down after three seasons.
This is the third straight year that Holmes has hired a new girls head basketball coach. The Bulldogs finished 7-19 under Danielle Wells last season and 21-8 under Greg Ash in 2017-18.
Brown was an assistant coach on last year’s Holmes team that had three underclassmen in the starting lineup. But the team will lose leading scorer and rebounder Kamari Graham to graduation.
Montecalvo resigned as Ludlow’s head coach with a 52-41 record over the last three years. Last season, he was named Division III Coach of the Year in Northern Kentucky as the Panthers made it to the 9th Region tournament for the first time since 2009 and finished with a 22-11 record.
The leading scorer on Ludlow’s team was junior Abby Mahan with a 15.8 average. One of the other returning starters is junior forward Karina Castrellon, who averaged 8.1 points and 5.8 rebounds.
St. Henry grad leads Philippine club volleyball team to national title
St. Henry graduate Stephanie Niemer was named most valuable player in the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix volleyball tournament after leading her Petron Blaze Spikers team to victory in the championship final last Saturday in Manila.
Niemer, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, scored 31 points in the match with 28 kills, two blocks and a service ace. She finished off the match with a cross-court kill in the fifth game against F2 Logistics.
This is the ninth year that Niemer, 29, has played club volleyball in foreign leagues. Last year, she was a member of the Olympiacos team in Greece that won the CEV Women’s Challenge Cup in Europe. She has also played for club teams in Puerto Rico, France, and Azerbaijan.
Niemer played college volleyball for the University of Cincinnati and earned Big East Player of the Year honors as a senior. She still holds the team’s all-time record in service aces (195) and ranks second in kills (1,976).
