Girls’ soccer: State’s top two teams set for semifinals showdown
The quirk of the blind draw has pitted No. 1 South Oldham and No. 2 Lexington Catholic against each other in Wednesday’s KHSAA Girls’ State Soccer Tournament semifinals rather than potentially saving that tilt for Saturday’s championship game.
While the Kentucky High School Athletic Association has worked to avoid such an occurrence in its six football classes, seeding part of any of its other sports’ postseasons hasn’t happened yet.
Lexington Catholic Coach Terry Quigley said he found the bracket “interesting” when it came out. But he doesn’t quibble with the draw. The Knights’ coach tallied his 500th win with their first-round victory over Highlands last week without fanfare. He barely gave a postgame talk that night.
Kentucky high school girls’ soccer’s all-time wins leader has been to nine state finals, won one state championship and played countless high-level opponents.
“You can’t complain. I mean, you’re in the final four. You’ve got to play somebody,” Quigley said.
The Dragons and Knights have held the top two rankings for much of the season, regardless of which rating system you choose. And while they’ve beaten a lot of the same rivals, they haven’t faced each other yet. That comes at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Frederick Douglass High School. Elizabethtown, ranked No. 4 in the RPI, and West Jessamine will face each other in the 4 p.m. semifinal.
“I expect it to be a game in which one mistake could make the other team a winner,” Quigley said. “I would think that it will be really, really difficult.”
Lexington Catholic has scored the most goals in the state (152) and is second in fewest goals allowed (11). South Oldham has given up the fewest goals (eight) while ranking eighth in goals scored (115).
The Knights have a Kentucky commit (Katherine Truitt) and another declared for Central Michigan (Olivia Bretz). The Dragons have a Louisville commit (Betsy Huckaby) and another going to Appalachian State (Marley Kahle).
South Oldham finished runner-up last season. Lexington Catholic finished runner-up in 2020. Both have key players who were big parts of those teams.
That’s a lot of facts that add up to what should be a fantastic semifinal.
“I think it should be a fun game,” Quigley said with a laugh. “Not for me, but for everybody watching.”
What it means to wear ‘West’
West Jessamine opened its season with a 6-0 home loss to Lexington Catholic. Then the Colts lost 9-0 to South Oldham four nights later.
By the time they took a 10-0 loss to Sacred Heart on Aug. 27, Coach Ben Hall-Volpenhein’s team was 1-6 against a schedule only for the stout of heart.
“The thing is, I don’t care about the regular season,” Hall-Volpenhein said. “I’m a competitor and I want to win. But I want the girls to be mentally sound, go through the challenges and, ultimately, those challenges matter more. … I’m here for the girls, man.”
Hall-Volpenhein admits the scheduling as it worked out wasn’t ideal. He’d rather sprinkle in the tough opponents than face a fresh monster night after night for the first month.
“But that was the way the scheduling was going to work or else we weren’t going to be able to play those teams,” he said.
It’s clear now that the toughness forged against those top opponents helped down the stretch. West Jessamine has gone 11-2-2 since its Sacred Heart loss, survived the 12th Region Tournament and mowed down much higher RPI-rated opponents on its side of the state bracket with a 4-0 win at Prestonsburg and an 8-2 win at Corbin.
Next, the RPI No. 82 Colts will face No. 4 Elizabethtown, the 5th Region champ, at 4 p.m. Wednesday for a spot in Saturday’s finals.
This is Hall-Volpenhein’s second season as West Jess’s head coach. It’s also his second state semifinals appearance, carrying on the legacy of one of his coaching mentors, Kevin Wright, who led the Colts to two state championships.
“Some of these young kids that we’re playing, I was afraid that they didn’t know what it meant to wear ‘West,’ yet,” Hall-Volpenhein said. “But, you know, they’ve been relentless. They’ve got two tough challenges ahead of them, one at a time, but they can do it.”
Here’s a look at this year’s girls’ soccer semifinalists.
South Oldham (21-2-0)
Pedigree: 8th Region champions; 2021 state runner-up; seven-time state champions (the last in 2014).
End-of-season rankings: RPI-1; Maher-1.
Stat stuffers: Five double-digit goal scorers are all seniors — Marley Kahle (29 goals, 17 assists), Betsy Huckaby (20 goals, seven assists), Ava Roberson (16 goals, eight assists), Katie Beth May (13 goals, eight assists), Ally Byrd (12 goals, eight assists).
Tournament road: Defeated Assumption 2-0 and Bowling Green 5-1.
Last meeting: Beat LexCath 4-2 on Aug. 21, 2021.
Common opponents with Lexington Catholic: Split two games with Assumption, losing 3-2 and winning 2-0. Beat Bethlehem 4-0, Elizabethtown 4-0, Paul Laurence Dunbar 3-0; Simon Kenton 4-0, West Jessamine 9-0. Lost 3-2 to Sacred Heart.
Notes: The Dragons have outscored opponents 115-8 with six of those goals against coming in their two losses. Huckaby has committed to Louisville. Kahle is committed to Appalachian State. Coach Kenneth Burke succeeded South Oldham legend Cy Tucker in 2015 and has led the Dragons to three region titles and two state final fours. Ally Tucker, the former Tates Creek head coach and daughter of Cy Tucker, is an assistant on Burke’s staff. Three of South Oldham’s state titles (1996, 1998, 2001) have come against Lexington Catholic.
Lexington Catholic (26-1-0)
Pedigree: 11th Region champions; 2002 state champions; eight-time state runner-up.
End-of-season rankings: RPI-2; Maher-2.
Stat stuffers: Six double-digit goal scorers — Mary Martin Hampton (37 goals, 10 assists), Katherine Truitt (20 goals, 12 assists), Olivia Bretz (14 goals, 13 assists), Izzy Skinner (13 goals, 14 assists), Sara-Kate Barnes (13 goals, six assists), Zara McCarthy (10 goals, 27 assists).
Tournament road: Beat Highlands 4-0 and Bishop Brossart 3-0.
Common opponents with South Oldham: Beat Assumption twice, 3-2 and 2-1. Beat Bethlehem 4-2, Elizabethtown 6-1, Paul Laurence Dunbar 4-0, Simon Kenton 1-0, West Jessamine 6-0. Lost 3-0 to Sacred Heart.
Notes: LexCath has outscored opponents 152-11 and recorded seven straight shutouts in postseason play. Its 152 goals ties Prestonsburg for tops in state. The Knights’ 11 goals against is second only to South Oldham. Truitt, a Kentucky commit, is three-time 11th Region player of the year. Bretz is committed to Central Michigan. Truitt, Bretz and Hampton were key members of LexCath’s 2020 state runners-up.
Elizabethtown (21-4-3)
Pedigree: 5th Region champions; first state tournament appearance since 2013.
End-of-season rankings: RPI-4; Maher-10.
Stat stuffers: Five double-digit goal scorers — Campbell Wallace (33 goals, 15 assists), Kennedy Carter (19 goals, 14 assists), Adelyn Inman (17 goals, 15 assists), Emma Zoeller (17 goals, 18 assists), Noelle Garcia (12 goals, nine assists).
Tournament road: Beat Marshall County 1-0 and Owensboro Catholic 2-0.
Last meeting: West Jessamine and Elizabethtown have not played each other since 2012.
Common opponents with West Jessamine: Beat Bethlehem 2-0 and tied Bethlehem 0-0. Lost 6-1 to Lexington Catholic, 4-3 to Sacred Heart, 4-0 to South Oldham.
Notes: Coach Robert Zoeller returned to the Panthers this season after more than a decade away. Zoeller reestablished himself as a top girls’ coach at Simon Kenton where he led the Pioneers to five region titles and the 2016 state semifinals in seven years. Zoeller previously led Elizabethtown’s girls’ program in 2001-2004 and 2007-2008, a stretch that included seven straight 5th Region titles. He has also coached the boys’ programs at E-town and Ballard. Daughter Abigail Zoeller, a member of his 2016 team who went on to play college soccer at Kentucky and Mercer, is an assistant and E-town’s junior varsity head coach.
West Jessamine (12-8-2)
Pedigree: 12th Region champions; two-time state champion (2016, 2017); 2021 semifinalist.
End-of-season rankings: RPI-82; Maher-30.
Stat stuffers: Kylie Archer (16 goals, 10 assists), Karlie Galus (14 goals, three assists), Brooke Beasley (seven goals), Mary Hodge (five goals, four assist), Caroline Tucker (three goals, seven assists).
Tournament road: Beat Prestonsburg 8-0 and Corbin 8-2.
Common opponents with Elizabethtown: Lost 2-1 to Bethlehem, 6-0 to Lexington Catholic, 10-0 to Sacred Heart, 9-0 to South Oldham.
Notes: West Jessamine has won seven straight 12th Region championships and reached at least the state semifinals in four of those years. They have gone unbeaten in region play each of the last two years. Hodge and Tucker were also members of the Colts’ region championship golf team. At No. 82, West Jess is the lowest-rated RPI team to reach the semifinals since that data began being compiled in 2018. It has been used to determine home-field advantage in the first two rounds of the tournament since 2021. Archer is a Marshall commit.
GIRLS’ SOCCER STATE TOURNAMENT
At Frederick Douglass High School
Wednesday’s semifinals
4 p.m.: West Jessamine (12-8-2) vs. Elizabethtown (21-4-3)
7:30 p.m.: Lexington Catholic (26-1-0) vs. South Oldham (21-2-0)
Saturday’s finals
4 p.m.: Championship
Online: All games streaming via subscription at KHSAA.tv or pay per view at go.prepspin.com.
This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 11:41 AM.
