The Helias volleyball team has played 17 matches so far this season, and it seems like the Lady Crusaders have used almost that many different lineups.
Helias, which changes its look almost as much as a chameleon, used another different one in Tuesday night's match against Battle at Rackers Fieldhouse. The result was the same, however, as it resulted in yet another win for the Lady Crusaders.
Helias carved out a 25-13, 25-21 victory against Battle that pushed the Lady Crusaders' record to 16-1 on the season.
"The girls are pretty good about adjusting because we do it all the time," Helias head coach David Harris said. "We did it all summer and we've done it several times this fall. So they're used to my "mad scientist' lineups."
Harris laughed when asked if he sometimes changes things up just to keep himself interested. Instead, it's got a much more practical approach.
"Some of that is by design, because you never know when somebody might get strep throat or get sick or have some kind of injury," Harris said. "We do this now so if we have to do it in a more important game, then they've done it before."
The lineup change came after Helias breezed to its first-set win. Battle won the first point by was never really close again after Helias won the next five.
Out of the Spartans' 13 points in the set, nine of them came thanks to errors by Helias.
In came the new lineup, and Battle played from in front most of the set, eventually forcing Harris to call a timeout with Helias trailing 16-11.
"In the second set, we used a lineup we hadn't used all year, so it took them a little while to get used to it," Harris said. "The second time through (the rotation), they started adjusting a little bit better."
Helias eventually tied it at 20 after three straight kills - two by Hannah Eynard sandwiched around one by Hannah Borchelt.
A hitting error by Battle on the next point gave Helias the lead and the Lady Crusaders would never trail again.
Harris said the Lady Crusaders lifted their game in that set when staring a loss in the face.
"We didn't want to go to a third game," he said. "This team all year long, they get behind and they find another gear and kick it in. Sometimes I wish it wouldn't be like that, but at least they have that and know they can do it.
"So getting behind doesn't really rattle them or anything."
Helias won the final four points of the match, two on kills by Borchelt and the final one on a block by Eynard.
Eynard, Ellie Rockers and Suzie Kuensting ended up with two blocks apiece, while Borchelt led the team with seven kills. Rockers and Eynard had four kills each.
Also for Helias, Ashley Dudenhoeffer had nine assists and Abby Shepard had seven. Blake Berhorst led the way with seven digs and Megan Brown had six. Dudenhoeffer had nine service points, including two aces.
In the JV match, Helias rolled to a 25-5, 25-12 victory.
Bradi Berhorst racked up 15 service points, including four aces, while Amie Henson also had four aces among her eight service points. Callie Henson, Kelsey Brester and Morgan Miles had five kills apiece for the Lady Crusaders (21-1-1). Amie Henson had eight assists and Elisabeth Mealy had eight digs.
Helias won the freshman match 25-10, 25-9.
Grace Millard had five kills, two blocks and nine service points for Helias (21-0). Sommer Kolb had 11 assists, Reagan Bernskoetter had eight digs and Jada Oldham had three aces.
Helias will play Thursday at Blair Oaks.