With the postseason looming, the Helias and Jefferson City volleyball teams were both able to take some positives out of their regular-season finale Thursday night.
The Lady Crusaders were able to overcome some adversity while claiming a 25-18, 25-19 win at Fleming Fieldhouse, while the Lady Jays were able to take their latest step in a season-long journey to being ready for district play.
"It doesn't have to be pretty, we just want the final result," Helias coach David Harris said. "We knew going in that the first time we played them, they had some injuries and didn't have their full team. We knew it was going to be different this time, they were going to be better, and they proved it.
"I think if they play like that next week, they ought to be able to win their district."
Jefferson City coach Lisa Hoffmeyer agreed with that assessment.
"That was the most mentally tough match we have played," she said. "That's been something that we've struggled with - when things aren't going well, we start to play differently. Tonight, the mentality was the same. That was a big, big, big steppingstone for us."
In the first set, Helias was able to overcome a slew of errors to post the seven-point win. In addition to scoring their 25 points, the Lady Crusaders gave the Lady Jays 13 points thanks to nine hitting errors and four serving errors.
"It's hard to play the other team and yourself at the same time," Harris said with a smile.
Helias held a 10-7 lead when it won six of the next seven points to take control, with four of them coming on kills by Suzie Kuensting.
The Lady Crusaders eventually took a 24-14 edge when Blake Berhorst ripped an ace, before four straight Helias errors made things interesting. A kill by Kuensting eventually closed it out.
"I thought J.C. played with a lot of energy, they kept a lot of balls in play," Harris said. "I thought they had more energy than we did overall. We talked about that in between games - nobody should ever outhustle us or have more energy than we do - but I think they did tonight."
Then came an odd break in between sets. The start of the first game was delayed for five minutes due to P.A. problems before the officials decided to start the match. Jefferson City officials got it working late in the first game, so they decided to do an anthem and a breast cancer awareness speech between sets.
The break seemed to help Jefferson City and hurt Helias, as the Lady Jays raced out to leads of 7-2 and 9-4. Mary Wehmeyer had a pair of kills and a block in that span for Jefferson City.
Wehmeyer ended up with a team-high seven kills on a night where the Lady Jays showed some good offensive balance.
"It's finally starting to click, we're finally getting that hitter-setter chemistry and confidence in each other," Hoffmeyer said. "We're able to move it around a little better. Early in the season, if we tried to do something (out of the ordinary), there were question marks flying all around the place. Now we're settling into what we're capable of doing."
Helias slowly started to chip away, tying it at 11 and 14 before taking the lead for good when a kill by Hannah Borchelt made it 15-14.
The Lady Crusaders' lead reached six on three occasions down the stretch, the last coming on a kill by Erin Wyrick that ended the match.
"I'm very proud of the way the girls kept their composure well in that second game, down 7-2 and 9-4," Harris said. "We just started chipping away. One of the sayings or mottos we have is, "We serve twice, they serve once.' If we do that, we automatically win."
Kuensting led the Lady Crusaders with seven kills, while Ellie Rockers had six. Ashley Dudenhoeffer racked up 18 digs and 31 assists, while Blake Berhorst had 19 digs. Clarissa Fennessey had seven service points, including two aces, and 11 digs.
Baylee Rozier had 12 digs and two blocks for the Lady Jays, Cameryn Campbell had 12 digs and Megan Bleidistel had 10 digs. Janice Steacy had nine assists and Tatum Gaines had four kills.
"We got a few wins toward the end of the season and the kids are starting to feel confident about what they've capable of doing," Hoffmeyer said. "If we play the way we did tonight, we're moving on (from districts)."
Helias (27-3-1) is the top seed in the Class 3 District 12 Tournament that starts Monday at Blair Oaks. The Lady Crusaders have a first-round bye in the event and play at 5 p.m. Tuesday against either fourth-seeded California and fifth-seeded School of the Osage. With a win, Helias would play in the title match at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Jefferson City (13-18) is the No. 2 seed in the Class 4 District 9 Tournament at Troy. The Lady Jays open against seventh-seeded Rock Bridge at 6 p.m. Monday. The semifinal matches and championship match are set for Tuesday.
In Thursday's JV match, Helias notched a 25-18, 25-17 victory.
Amie Henson had nine assists and nine service points for the Lady Crusaders (26-3-2), Elisabeth Mealy had 16 digs, Regan Bruns had three blocks and Callie Henson, Meagan Engelbrecht and Bruns had four kills apiece.
Tori LePage had 24 digs for Jefferson City (23-9-1), Sam Murray had five kills and Emma Gretlein had nine service points.
In the freshman match, Helias captured a 25-20, 25-4 win.
Sommer Kolb had 15 service points, including two aces, and nine assists for Helias (31-0). Reagan Bernskoetter had seven kills, Krystal Brauner had eight digs and Grace Millard had two blocks.
Micah Linthacum had three blocks and five service points for Jefferson City (4-21-4), Kelsie Backues had six digs and Maddie Jones, Lily McCutchen and Maddy Cook also had five service points each.