With the volleyball postseason rapidly approaching, the Helias Lady Crusaders wanted a test.
The opportunity to play the No. 9 team in the country provided just that Tuesday night as St. Joseph's Academy defeated Helias 26-24, 25-23 in a back-and-forth battle at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"I don't think this match could have come at a better time," Helias coach David Harris said. "This gives us something to look at, see what we need to do differently and learn from."
One thing Helias learned was it is pretty good.
"We came within four points of beating the ninth-ranked team in the nation, we're right there," Harris said. "We just need to be a little more consistent in certain situations."
After allowing the first point of the match on a serve out of bounds, Helias scored the next four to take the lead. The Lady Crusaders led 15-11 before the Angels got four straight points to tie it.
Helias answered and appeared poised to take the opening game when it held a 23-19 advantage.
But the Angels weren't going to give up, scoring seven of the final eight points in the set to take the 26-24 decision.
"I was a little disappointed we didn't win that first set," Harris said. "When you're ahead 23-19, you should probably win.
"We had a couple of unforced errors, but they've got so much talent, they know when they need to step up and make plays. They made big plays when they needed them."
The Angels, who feature four Division I recruits, got off to a better start in the second set. St. Joseph's used a 6-2 run to take a 10-6 lead, then stretched that advantage to 16-10.
But Helias had some fight left, scoring six of the next eight points to cut the deficit to 18-16.
"We don't give up either," Harris said.
The Lady Crusaders got as close as one point at 23-22 before the Angels were able to close out the match.
"We had our chances, we don't have anything to hang our heads about," Harris said. "With the schedule they play, they are used to having to fight for points and hopefully that's something we learned from them tonight."
The strongest part of St. Joseph's game is power. When they swing, the Angels don't get cheated very often.
"It's supposed to be part of ours, too," Harris said. "We've gotten into the habit of dinking it sometimes, we're trying to work on that.
"But when we swung, we were pretty successful."
St. Joseph's Academy, ranked No. 1 overall in Missouri by MaxPreps, is now 22-2.
Bradi Berhorst led Helias with 16 digs, while Lexi Lamb paced the Lady Crusaders with 15 assists while adding 12 digs. Regan Bruns had eight kills, while Ellie Rockers totaled five. Hannah Borchelt had four blocks, while Korie Otto had three.
Helias (28-3-2), ranked No. 3 overall by MaxPreps, will host Jefferson City on Thursday. The freshman and JV matches will start at 5:30 p.m., with the varsity contest to begin around 7 p.m.
In Tuesday's JV match, St. Joseph's defeated Helias 26-24, 25-22. Krystal Brauner had nine digs for the Lady Crusaders (26-5), while Olivia Farrow added seven. Jada Oldham finished with seven assists, while Riley Bernskoetter added six. Grace Millard had six kills.
In the freshman match Tuesday, St. Joseph's defeated Helias 25-17, 22-25, 26-24. Gracie Bernskoetter totaled 27 digs to pace the Lady Crusaders (25-5-1), while Emily Houser had 16. Claire Bonnot finished with 19 assists, while Mackenzie Stegeman had 11. Tessa Wilson had with 11 kills.