With a perfect record no longer intact, the Helias Lady Crusaders tried to do something they hadn't encountered all season: avoid a losing streak.
Helias bounced back from its first loss of the season Tuesday with a 25-19, 25-11 win against the Jefferson City Lady Jays at Rackers Fieldhouse.
The Lady Crusaders swept the season series from the Lady Jays for a fifth straight year.
"That's usually one of the goals the team sets at the beginning of the year," Helias coach David Harris said. "Also, one of the goals is to go undefeated at home, and we've accomplished that."
Just 24 hours earlier, Helias lost its first match of the season at Hermann. The Lady Crusaders committed 28 total errors in the defeat.
Helias opened Tuesday's match with seven errors on the first 17 points.
"In a game like this, the adrenaline is pumping," Harris said. "You have to wait until everybody takes a breath and calms down a little bit."
Jefferson City got a pair of early kills from Zoe Stratman, taking the lead from the start. Stratman added her third kill of the match to give the Lady Jays a 12-9 advantage.
"We felt like we had a pretty good game plan going in to tonight," Lady Jays coach Lisa Hoffmeyer said. "If we had executed 110 percent, we could've maybe edged them out."
Annabelle Maassen followed with a block and Jefferson City was serving with a four-point lead, looking to take control of the opening set.
"Every year I've been a part of this, it seems like Jeff City always comes out real strong, real fast," Harris said. "If you weather that little storm, then you're able to come back."
Harris said he was about to call a timeout trailing 13-9, and even noticed some of his players were looking toward him, wondering if a timeout was coming. Harris didn't call a timeout, and Helias got a little help instead.
Jefferson City served into the net on the ensuing point and Korie Otto followed with a kill. Meagan Engelbrecht had a kill, then clipped the net on her serve and the ball dropped in for an ace. Helias held a 15-14 advantage, its first lead of the match.
"That was better than calling a timeout, I guess," Harris said. "After that point, we went on a big run and closed that first set out."
The Lady Jays briefly took back the lead at 16-15 after a kill by Sydney Vogt, but Helias outscored Jefferson City 10-3 to finish the set.
Jefferson City had another quick start to the second set, but it would be short-lived. Engelbrecht had a pair of aces and Ellie Rockers recorded four kills in a six-point stretch, giving Helias an 11-5 lead.
"Momentum is a fickle thing," Harris said. "It's hard to get and it's easy to let go of. Tonight, once we got that momentum, we did a good job of hanging onto it."
The Lady Jays struggled on the front line and needed to tip balls over Helias' blockers to get kills, rather than spiking them at the net. In the second set, Maassen got her attack attempts from the back row.
"We were trying to mix things up," Hoffmeyer said. "We know they have big blockers, so we talked a lot about how we cannot come from the traditional places with the traditional people. We have to think outside the box, attacking on two (hits) or getting a tip."
Rockers had a double-double of 11 kills and 10 digs to lead the Lady Crusaders. Callie Henson and Otto each had six kills and Grace Millard finished with four kills.
Krystal Brauner had a team-high 11 digs, while Riley Bernskoetter finished with 20 assists and Jada Oldham had nine assists.
Maassen led the Lady Jays with five kills, five digs and four total blocks. Stratman had four kills, Paige Reeser finished with 13 assists and two aces and Vogt added four digs.
Helias (28-1-1), still No. 7 in the nation in this week's MaxPreps high school girls volleyball rankings, will play Saturday in the Ozark Tournament to finish the regular season.
"One of the good things about sports, especially volleyball, is you get another chance right away," Harris said of getting to play the next day after Helias suffered its first loss. "There's the next play, the next set. I think it was good for us to turn around and play again."
Jefferson City (14-12-3) hosts Hickman on Thursday. The freshman match begins at 5 p.m., followed by the JV at 6 p.m. and the varsity around 7:15 p.m. at Fleming Fieldhouse.
"We want to keep the effort high, that's been a theme for these guys all year long," Hoffmeyer said.
In the JV match, Helias won 25-17, 25-19 to finish the season with a 23-9 record. Beth Luebbert had five kills for the Lady Crusaders, while Audrey Cook had seven assists and Lacey Heidbrink finished with six digs. Jacie Buschjost served six aces and added five assists, while Cate Albertson had three blocks.
Helias also won the freshman match 25-16, 25-10 to improve to 17-7. Lauren Strope had four kills and two blocks, while Alice Stiefermann had six assists for the Lady Crusaders. Halle Luetkemeyer and Alyssa Gipe each had seven digs.
For Jefferson City, Shelby Mell and Ada Humphrey each had three kills, Abby Blake tallied six assists and Emma Loesch posted 12 digs in the loss.
III
Helias' unbeaten streak came to an end Monday night with a 25-23, 26-24 loss to Hermann, which is ranked No. 1 in Class 2 by MaxPreps.
Rockers had a double-double of 12 kills and 10 digs to lead Helias, while Brauner had a team-high 16 digs and Engelbrecht finished with 12 digs and seven kills. Bernskoetter had 18 assists, Oldham added 12 and Otto tallied four blocks.
According to MaxPreps, Helias was the last remaining unbeaten volleyball team in Missouri.