CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Helias volleyball team ended the season the same way it started it - undefeated.
The Lady Crusaders capped off a dominating season by capturing the Class 3 state title at the Show-Me Center, fighting their way past Villa Duchesne by a 25-18, 18-25, 25-17 score Saturday night.
Helias ended the year with a record of 43-0-1 - shattering the state record for wins in a season (40), regardless of class - and delivered the school a title in its first-ever trip to the volleyball Final Four.
Laura Schieber, who led Helias in the title match with 10 kills and also had two aces, summed it up simply.
"It's definitely one of the best days of my entire life," she said. "I can't feel my body right now."
Lindsey Griggs, who racked up seven kills and 12 digs, was fighting back tears after the match.
"It's crazy," she said more than once. "I can't put it into words. It's the best way to end a season. I'm so excited right now."
When the final ball hit the floor and Helias had won, the Lady Crusaders' always-composed coach, David Harris, reacted the way he does after almost every match - with a small smile and little fanfare. But the enormity of the accomplishment was starting to sink in the more he stood around for post-match interviews.
"(Going undefeated) is just beyond my wildest dreams," he said. "A state championship was in the realm of possibility, very attainable, but to go undefeated is amazing. These girls earned every bit of it."
And Villa Duchesne made sure they earned the last of the 43 wins. The second set of the title match marked just the fourth set the Lady Crusaders lost the entire season.
"We came in wanting it the first game," Griggs said. "The second game, I don't know what happened. We just got in a funk.
"We knew we had to bring it back the third game. Oh, my gosh, it was just so exciting."
Helias came racing out of the blocks in the first set, taking a 9-3 lead, with the last of those points coming on an ace by Erica Haslag.
Villa Duchesne fought back to within 13-11 before a passing error stalled the Saints' run.
Haslag then took over. She racked up two huge kills, followed by an ace by Blake Berhorst, before Haslag got a block for a point.
Helias never looked back, eventually leading by as much as 10 at 22-12, before settling for the seven-point win.
The Lady Crusaders never led again in the second set after taking the opening two points.
"We talked in between sets that Villa Duchesne kind of played sloppy the first set, and we kind of did, too," Harris said. "So we needed to clean up what we were doing and we knew that they were going to clean theirs up."
Harris added with a laugh: "And they did, the only problem was, we didn't clean our end up."
Villa Duchesne led four different times early in the third set, but the Saints had a serving error and a passing error on back-to-back plays to give Helias a 5-4 lead. The Lady Crusaders never looked back.
Helias ran the lead to 20-12 before the Lady Crusaders had four straight errors to make it 20-16. But a kill by Haslag calmed down the Lady Crusaders and they won four straight points.
The final point, fittingly, came on a kill by Haslag, the team's leader in that category.
"In between the second and third sets, I didn't have to say much," Harris said. "We have really good leaders on this team and you just kind of let them take over. And they did.
"They were not going to be denied, you could see it on their faces."
Schieber said the way the team reacted in the third set was characteristic of the Lady Crusaders.
"We hate losing," she said. "We're not one of those teams that, when we get beaten, gets shaken. We come back even stronger because we're furious."
Berhorst racked up a match-high 13 digs, while Haslag led all players with four blocks. Haslag also added nine kills and two aces.
"All the 9 a.m. practices on days we got off school, they all paid off," Schieber said. "We've all worked so hard and we've been dreaming about this."
As the season wore on, a sentiment was heard from outsiders more than once that Helias should win state, and if it didn't, the season would be a disappointment.
"There was definitely some pressure," Schieber said. "Someone even texted us and said, "It would really (stink) if you guys lost.' And we're like, "Thanks?'"
Harris said the pressure mounted, especially during the final week of the season.
"We earned everything all year," he said. "Nothing was given to us. We kind of flew under the radar maybe early in the season, but when we went to St. Louis and won that Gateway Matchup Tournament and beat some of the best teams in St. Louis, we weren't going to fly under the radar anymore.
"These girls handled that constant target on our backs, or that constant pressure, very well."
When asked if he wished the team could get a chance to replay its lone tie this season - a split with Webster Groves in the opening match of the Ozark Grand Slam Tournament - Harris had a quick answer.
"Yeah," he said with a laugh. "But on the other hand, it was kind of a wakeup call for us that day that teams were going to come ready to play us and we had to be ready every single time we stepped on the court.
"It would be better to be 44-0, but (even with) that little blip, I'll take this every time."
A public reception for the Lady Crusaders championship team is scheduled from 1-2:30 p.m. today in the commons at Helias.