How Beechwood, Notre Dame advanced to Ninth Region volleyball final
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The 2026 Ninth Region volleyball champion will come from the 35th District.
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It's been an exciting regional tournament over three days at Dayton High School but there hasn't been a whole lot of drama. Five of the first six matches have been sweeps. No matter what happens on Oct. 29, the matchup between state No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 4 Beechwood will be a fitting end to the season as it relates to Northern Kentucky. Either the Pandas or Tigers will be a worthy representative at next week's state tournament.
Here's what happened in Wendesday night's regional semifinals.
Beechwood sweeps Conner, advances to first regional championship since 2003
Behind 16 kills from newly-minted Ninth Region Player of the Year Isabel O'Brien, the Beechwood Tigers swept the Conner Cougars 25-18, 25-17, 25-19 to extend their season at least one more day and earn a berth in their first regional championship in 23 years.
They are also the first public school to play for the region title since 2022. Since the start of the century, Beechwood, Scott, Simon Kenton, Cooper and Ryle have been the only public schools to advance to the championship match.
Head coach Matt Long continues to preach to his team the importance of playing a full game, and that's what the Tigers did on Wednesday night. They were aggressive at the service line, on the attack, and they played exceptional back line defense to shut down the Cougars.
"We've had some big roles that we had to fill this past year because we lost four seniors. Our younger girls have done nothing but excel and I'm just so proud of them. Our team chemistry's amazing, everyone's so fun and we enjoy being around each other," O'Brien said.
Despite 10 hitting errors and eight service errors, Beechwood's experience prevailed as the girls used runs in each set to pull away. With the first set tied at 13, a Macy Armstrong kill kickstarted a 12-5 run for the 1-0 lead. Three Conner errors put the Cougars in a four-point hole to start the second set before O'Brien, Armstrong and Skylr Estep were the catalysts for two four-point runs to take a 19-10 lead.
"It's been kind of prevalent throughout the tournament, where we're starting a little tight with a little too much pressure on ourselves. I talk to them in timeouts: 'Take a deep breath. Relax, enjoy, play together but don't play tight.'" Long said.
The Tigers opened up a 17-12 lead in the third set before the Cougars clawed back to get within 22-19 behind kills from Skylyn Koerber, Olivia Borneman and Charlotte Patton.
For the majority of the match, taking the ball out of Conner's hitters' hands was the game plan for Beechwood. Patton, who had 511 kills in the regular season, posted just seven, five of which came in the final set. Koerber and Borneman picked up the slack, totaling 11 teminations.
"I feel like they were moving pretty damn well in the back row. I thought Char actually killed the ball and she was getting underneath it. All of them were ... anything to save the point and keep the rally going. I think Charlotte finally elevated above the block several times in order to put an exclamation point on it. But I've got to hand it to them; they are a very good team," Conner head coach Doug Rabe said.
Conner graduates five seniors: Makena Marks, Aurora Sandfoss, Olivia McConnell, Brynn Raney and Koerber. They carried the Cougars to a 23-13 record and made history in the postseason, beating Ryle for the first time since 2003 to win their first-ever 33rd District title. A sweep of Dixie Heights on Oct. 26 was Conner's second regional tournament win of the 21st century. Koerber holds the school record for aces, is second in career digs and third in career kills.
The Cougars also now own five straight 20-win seasons.
"I feel like we're contenders now. Instead of a mid- to lower team, we're at least a mid- to higher-tier team, even in our region. Conner is on the map now, and based on us having 15 freshmen scattered across freshman, JV and varsity, I think that we've got a really solid program right now," Rabe said.
What the Tigers have this year is special. They're 3-1 against St. Henry and Notre Dame, won back-to-back All "A" state championships and are a bona fide top five team in the state. No matter the championship match result, they're embracing everything this season has brought.
"It's definitely special getting to be a part of school history. I couldn't be more excited," O'Brien said.
Notre Dame avenges early-season loss to St. Henry, is one win away from five-peat
Teagan Kondik wasn't letting her high school career end short the regional finals, a stage the Pandas are all too accustomed to.
The senior came out of the locker room with a fire in her heart, putting away the first three kills of the match for NDA, the final two of a marathon first set, and her lone block was the final point of the Pandas' 27-25, 25-15, 25-17 sweep of St. Henry.
"This season for us, it's been a challenge. We've gone through a lot as a team but we've done it together. Coming out, finishing the game for them, it just means a lot," Kondik said.
The win was a complete turnaround from the St. Henry's reverse sweep in Park Hills on Sept. 1. That night, Violet Main, Hadley Lemmond, Stella Flick and Ashley Hammond combined for 50 kills. In the regional semifinals, the Crusaders had just 40 kills as a team. Madelyn Keipert had six kills and four aces in the first matchup, compared to just three and one on Wednesday night.
Ellie Breitling and Makayla Roose combined for six blocks, but the Pandas' net presence caused 11 Crusader hitting errors. When the ball wasn't sailing out, Kaia Tilden, Dara Jackson, Ellie Breitling and Kondik were right there to dig it.
"This season has been full of adversity for us and I think this is the part where we get to shine. We get to take what we learned all throughout the season and implement that into postseason. We switched up our defense a little bit so that we could cover the tips. We made sure that our girls were holding their base so that (Keipert) couldn't dump on us," Notre Dame co-coach Hannah Colvin said.
At any given point in the first set, attendees could have sensed that the match might go five sets. Main's five kills and two blocks led St. Henry's counterpunch after the Pandas took a 12-7 lead. After a Hammond kill gave the Crusaders set point at 25-24, kills from Roose and Kondik gave NDA the 1-0 lead.
"We called a few timeouts in a row and we said, 'Hey, we've had the momentum this whole game and we're not going to let that change now.' They really went after that point; they switched it up and took the momentum back and I'm really proud of them for that," Colvin said.
The biggest factor in the final two sets was how clean NDA played. The Pandas had no hitting errors and just four service errors in the final two frames.
"In practice, if you make a mistake, your teammates have your back. We practice low errors, playing a game where you can't miss the first five points," Kondik said.
In the 2025 postseason, Roose really made her name known. (She's now committed to the University of Cincinnati and was the 2026 35th District tournament MVP.) This year, the second half of the season has been Breitling's time to shine. She had four kills and three blocks in the semifinal, but her contributions since her role increased have helped her grow in confidence and give the Pandas another depth piece.
While this season didn't end how the Crusaders wanted, they figure to be the team to beat in 2027. They graduate just two players in Kali McCane and Kayleigh McCormick and return what will be a dynamite senior class led by Main, Lemmond, Keipert, Kenadi Sieg, Audrey Pieczonka and Molly Blackburn.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Beechwood, Notre Dame advanced to Ninth Region volleyball final