WARDSVILLE - It's never a good thing when the most notable part of a volleyball match is a delay.
Or, for that matter, three delays.
There were three significant discussions about lineup issues during the second game of Thursday night's match between the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons and the Helias Lady Crusaders. The end result was a disruption of the flow of the match.
By the time everything got straightened out, any sense of emotion had been drained out of the gym, making the Lady Crusaders' 25-16, 25-11 victory almost an afterthought.
"Early on, I thought the crowd was into it and it was a nice environment," Helias coach David Harris said. "And then it slowed down and the crowd got out of it."
Harris, who seemingly spent more time talking to the down official than to his players, said the problem arose from trying to run an offense featuring three middle hitters, instead of the normal two, that proved to be a little confusing.
"The players forgot who they were going in and out for," he said. "... It's a little different who you go in and out for and (one player) wasn't used to the libero going in and out for her."
It was a somewhat fitting end to a match where each team played well for stretches, only to struggle at other times.
In the opening game, Blair Oaks took a quick 3-1 lead before Helias scored five straight, the last two on aces by Laura Schieber.
A kill by Paige Stockman got the Lady Falcons within one, but the Lady Crusaders pulled away immediately after that.
Helias stretched the lead to 11 twice before settling for the nine-point victory.
The biggest problem in the opening set for Blair Oaks was serve-receive, as having libero Jessica Clark out with an illness proved costly.
"We went in with a hesitation," Blair Oaks coach Joy Northweather said. "All of the girls are better passers than what they showed tonight. Without Jess here, all of them went in with a hesitation of, "What are we going to do? How are we going to do this?'"
If the Lady Falcons were looking to get into sync in the second game, any hope was dashed with the early delays.
In an unusual circumstance, Helias jumped ahead 4-2 in that game - and called timeout. Then came the first of the three discussions, and things seemed to get solved.
But when Helias took a 9-4 lead, the Lady Crusaders were forced to burn another timeout to try and straighten things out.
And by the time Helias lost a point for using the wrong server that changed the score from 12-6 to 11-7, things were officially disrupted.
"When you're already lacking focus, a situation like that doesn't help," Northweather said. "Not to use that as an excuse, because I think it hurt (Helias') side, too."
Harris agreed with that assessment.
"That really slowed everything down and kind of got everybody out of sync," he said.
However, Helias was able to rattle off the next four points on three kills by Schieber and an ace by Brittney Engelbrecht to start to pull away. The Lady Crusaders ended up winning 14 of the final 18 points in the match.
"I think we attacked different areas along the net pretty well," Harris said. "We did some good things, but we still need to work on serve-receive. It had been improving and we went through a stretch where it was pretty good, now it's kind of shaky again."
Erica Haslag racked up six kills and six blocks for Helias (16-3), while Anna Murphy had four kills. Engelbrecht and Ashley Dudenhoeffer had 11 assists apiece.
The Lady Crusaders return to action Saturday at the Lebanon Tournament.
"Over the next three weeks, we've got as many matches as we've had in the past five or six," Harris said. "It's good and bad, because we don't have much practice time, but sometimes at this point in the season it's almost better to play than practice a whole lot."
For Blair Oaks, Allison Maxwell had five kills and two blocks. Paige Stockman chipped in with two blocks and Lizzie Rosslan had eight assists.
The Lady Falcons (10-2) will play Saturday at the Versailles Tournament.
"I'm hoping that will push us and I'm hoping we can go in with some confidence and put this match aside," Northweather said. "We need to get a little bit back to playing like we were.
"I have not had a full squad at practice in a week. ... We've had sickness, college visits. It's been one thing after another that hasn't done us any favors. Luckily we still have almost a month to get clicking a little better."
In Thursday's JV match, Helias captured a 25-14, 25-13 victory.
Andi Gladbach had seven assists and six service points for Helias (23-2) and Jazmine Luebbert had 12 digs and six service points. Emma Albertson had six kills and Lexi Lamb had seven assists.
For Blair Oaks, Ryan Dudenhoeffer had two kills and three blocks, while Alexa Stegemann and Rebecca Schroeder added two kills apiece. Madison Abbott and Kellie Fredendall also had three blocks each. Jayde Peters had five assists and Kallie Kerperin had five digs.
In the freshman match, Helias notched a 25-12, 25-19 win.
Laura Vanderfeltz had 11 digs for Helias (20-2), while Kelsey Schenewerk and Ella Ward had four kills each. Morgan Fischer had nine assists, Abby Shepard had eight service points and Kayla Bax had two blocks.
For Blair Oaks, Cassidy Prenger had three kills, Montana Pecher had five digs and Taylee Soukup had four assists.