It's still a little early in the school year for a major exam in the classroom, but it's a different story on the volleyball court.
Helias had two big tests Saturday afternoon, and the Lady Crusaders passed them with flying colors.
Facing a pair of tough Class 4 squads in the space of a few hours at Rackers Fieldhouse, the Class 3 Lady Crusaders beat both and ran their record to 4-0 on the season.
Helias started the day with a 22-25, 25-11, 25-17 win against Republic before wrapping up the day with a surprisingly easy 25-14, 25-10 victory against Springfield Kickapoo.
"It was awesome," Helias setter Ashley Dudenhoeffer said. "We were really in sync today. (Against Kickapoo) especially, it really came together. Our hitters were on."
Helias coach David Harris said he got the "total team effort" coaches are always after.
"Sometimes as a coach you hope three or four people are playing really well and maybe one or two are having an off day," he said. "But when everybody is on, it's a pretty game to watch. And I think the fans got to see some exciting volleyball today."
The first game against Republic, in a match starting at noon, was the only real problem of the day for the Lady Crusaders.
"Our first set of the day was pretty rough, we were trying to wake up a little bit," said Lindsey Griggs, who led Helias with 11 kills. "Once we got in the second and third sets, we really got in the flow of things."
In that opening game, both teams were within two points of each other until Helias took a 12-10 lead. Republic then ripped off eight straight points and the Lady Crusaders couldn't recover. They did get to within 23-22 following an ace by Laura Schieber, but the Lady Tigers scored the final two points of the game to close it out.
Helias then seemed to flip a switch starting the second game, as all of its weapons were on display. The Lady Crusaders used a varied attack to take a 7-1 lead, built it to 19-7 and eventually took its biggest lead of the game with the final margin.
A 4-1 start in the third game gave Helias a lead it never relinquished.
In addition to the 11 kills by Griggs, Erica Haslag racked up 10, Molly Sandbothe and Schieber added eight each and Tory Wiley had six.
Dudenhoeffer, who dished out 40 assists in the match, said her hitters make setting easy.
"They are beasts up there," she said. "I've just got to pick which of the three of them to go to. It makes it so much easier to run the offense when you've got three good hitters. It's not like, "I've got to push it to this person.' I can totally pick."
Blake Berhorst racked up 20 digs in the victory.
Helias then took roughly two hours off for freshman and JV matches before retaking the court to play Kickapoo and junior standout Rachel Rippee. The 6-foot setter/outside hitter has already committed to the University of Arkansas and spent this past summer as one of just 12 members of the U.S. team that took silver at the NORCECA Women's U-18 Continental Championships in Costa Rica.
Her talent, along with an imposing front line for the Chiefs, had the Lady Crusaders concerned.
"It was a little intimidating because they're a lot bigger than us," Griggs said. "We knew we had to come in strong, so we just put our minds to it."
The fears proved unfounded, as the Lady Crusaders never trailed in the match.
In the first game, Helias jumped ahead 4-1 and eventually doubled-up Kickapoo at 16-8. The final margin was Helias' largest lead in that game.
Helias then raced ahead 14-1 to start the second game and cruised to the win.
"I thought our serve-receive was outstanding," Harris said. "I don't think we got aced all day in four sets, and most of the time, the passes were inside the 10-foot line. ... If our serve-receive is like that, then it makes it much easier on the setters and the hitters. We can run all different kinds of stuff."
Haslag added another 10 kills in the win against the Chiefs, with Dudenhoeffer recording 19 assists and six digs. Berhorst also had six digs.
"We have nine returning players this year, so we're pretty excited," Griggs said. "It can be a big year, we really think we can take it far because we have a lot of talent on our team."
Harris said all the Lady Crusaders have improved since last season.
"It's just been really fun to watch the maturation from last year to this year," he said. "... This was a really good day for us to get two matches in against quality opponents. But it's not the end of the season yet. We're not done, we can still get better, we still have things to improve on."
Helias returns to action Tuesday at Jefferson City. The freshman match starts at 5 p.m., with the JV and varsity to follow.
III
The Helias JV team also went 2-0 on Saturday.
The Lady Crusaders started with a 25-14, 25-10 win against Republic.
Bradi Berhorst had 10 service points, including two aces, Hannah Borchelt had seven kills and Lexy Lamb had 10 assists. Laura Vanderfeltz and Lamb had five digs each, while Maddie Neuner and Madeline McDaniel had two blocks apiece.
The Lady Crusaders then moved to 4-0 after beating Kickapoo 25-20, 25-14.
Borchelt and Regan Bruns had five kills apiece, Lamb had nine assists, Berhorst added eight digs and Borchelt had three blocks.
III
The Helias freshmen made it a clean sweep on the day by also winning a pair of matches.
The Lady Crusaders dropped Republic 25-15, 25-22.
Alyssa Sullivan had six assists and eight kills, Elisabeth Mealy had 13 service points and 14 digs, Kendal Hagenhoff had six assists and Grace Twehous had 10 digs.
Helias then posted a 31-29, 25-18 win against Kickapoo.
Mealy had two aces and 15 digs for the Lady Crusaders (4-0), Twehous had nine service points, Sullivan added seven assists and Morgan Miles had six kills.