Helias volleyball eases past Hickman

Tuesday night's volleyball match between Helias and Hickman was over in a flash, and that was a good thing for everybody involved.

That's because Hickman put up little resistance while mustering just nine points the entire night. In the end, Helias rumbled to a 25-4, 25-5 victory at Rackers Fieldhouse.

The Kewpies had one block and one kill in the opening game of the match. Those were the only two good things they did all night, as their other seven points came on errors by Helias.

And those seven errors were the only lowlights for Helias, as the Lady Crusaders put forth a commanding effort.

"I would have liked to run a few more things to test us a little more before we play Rock Bridge on Thursday, but nobody got hurt, so that's a good thing," Helias coach David Harris said.

The start of the first game set the tone for the evening. The Lady Crusaders ripped off the first 12 points on the serve of Brittney Engelbrecht, including four of them on aces. Those were among 11 aces for Helias on the night.

"We were working on serving to certain areas on the floor," Harris said.

A hitting error by Helias finally gave Hickman its first point, and the Kewpies got a block after that for their only back-to-back points the entire evening.

But a kill by Erica Haslag started another long streak for Helias, this one a 9-0 run that ended on a kill by Tory Wiley to make it 21-2.

Despite radical lineup changes and some different offensive plays in the second game, Helias didn't miss a beat. The Lady Crusaders scored four points before the Kewpies got their first, and the lead eventually swelled to 11-1.

The lead was 14-4 before Helias went on a 5-0 run, with three of those points coming on aces by Wiley, and that effectively ended it.

"We were trying to run some different kinds of plays, and we didn't really get to do that a whole lot, but we were trying," Harris said. "And we got some people some playing time that hadn't gotten a whole lot."

Wiley ended with a match-high seven kills, while Haslag and Laura Schieber had five apiece. In addition to Engelbrecht's four kills, Schieber and Wiley added three each. Engelbrecht also dished out 10 assists, while Molly Sandbothe had three blocks.

Helias (13-3) will host Rock Bridge at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

In Tuesday's JV match, Helias romped to a 25-8, 25-12 victory.

Emma Albertson had five kills for the Lady Crusaders (14-2), Courtney Hilke had eight service points and Andi Gladbach and Heidi Strobel had six assists each.

Helias also won the freshman match, rolling to a 25-8, 25-11 win.

Haley Kempker had 11 service points for Helias (14-2), Mia Millard had seven assists, Maddie Neuner had four kills and Bailey Taggart had five digs.