Sometimes the ball just bounces in your favor. That was the case for Helias on Thursday night at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Already up 19-6 in the second set, Riley Bersnkoetter tripped over Ellie Rockers as they both went for the ball after a Jefferson City spike. Rockers got the dig and Bernskoetter got the kick - yes, kick - to send it over the net. Korie Otto ended up finishing the point with a kill.
"We might have to send that one into ESPN or something," Helias coach David Harris said following the 25-14, 25-10 win for the Lady Crusaders.
That was just one point in what was a dominating second set for Helias.
Jefferson City called a timeout after the Lady Crusaders took an 8-2 lead. The Lady Jays got the next two points, but Helias went on a 13-2 run.
Following the kick, Hannah Borchelt capped the run with a kill.
Borchelt added her team-leading sixth kill for a 24-9 lead and Rockers ended the match with her third kill.
Six Helias players recorded at least three kills. Callie Henson had six and Regan Bruns tallied five. Jada Oldham and Bernskoetter finished with 13 and 12 assists, respectively.
"Our setters were doing a really good job at mixing it up, throwing in different sets," Bruns said. "It keeps the other team on their toes and really helps the hitters get good swings."
Bruns is part of a Helias senior class that never lost to the Lady Jays. Thursday's victory was the eighth consecutive in the crosstown matchup.
"That's a really great feeling to be able to keep that streak going," Bruns said. "It's just a great rivalry. Sometimes it gets a little heated, but I think it's all in good fun at the end of the day."
The match began with neither team leading by more than three until Helias scored five straight points for a 17-13 advantage.
Stephanie Fisher, who led the Lady Jays with three kills, tied it at three with a kill.
"We're obviously disappointed in the result, but we're not disappointed in our kids tonight maybe the way we were the first time around," Jefferson City coach Lisa Hoffmeyer said, "because they kept on fighting, and they kept communicating positively with each other. Sometimes you get beat."
Helias went on a 4-1 spurt to lead 7-4 after an Otto kill.
Jefferson City later scored three consecutive points, capped by a kill from Emma Gretlein, one of seven Lady Jay seniors recognized for Senior Night.
Corrin Lepper gave the Lady Jays their only lead of the match at 13-12 with one of her two blocks.
"We talk about our keys to success before every single game and that was obviously one of them is we had to have a block on every kid every time," Hoffmeyer said. "We really had to do a better job of reading the set and figuring out where the ball was going to end up and having a block set up, and we did that consistently early in that fist set."
Helias then got its serving and blocking going to finish off the set on a 13-1 run.
"In the second set we had a lot of great momentum and we kept that going," Bruns said. "We had great serving and our offense and defense were communicating really well."
Bernskoetter had two aces during the run. Rockers, who led with 15 service points, served the final seven points.
"We served well all night, but Ellie was serving very tough," Harris said. "Early in the season she was jump serving and she was kind of inconsistent. So the last couple games she just went to a standing serve and its really helped her a whole lot."
Otto and Henson had back-to-back blocks to close out the first set.
"Our block kind of took over there at the end of the first set," Harris said. "We've been spending a lot of time working on blocking."
Helias (27-4-1) will have a bye in the first round of the Class 3 District 10 Tournament, which is Monday and Tuesday at School of the Osage.
The top-seeded Lady Crusaders will play the winner of Osage and Eldon at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Blair Oaks (23-3), the No. 2 seed, will play either Bolivar or Buffalo at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the semifinals.
The championship game is set for 8 p.m. Tuesday.
"If we can keep blocking like that, that will help us," Harris said. "Our serve-receive has been one of our strengths all year and I think it was good again tonight, which allows us to utilize all our hitters. Our philosophy is if we can serve better than the other team and pass better than the other team, our chance of winning goes way up. If we keep that up next week, I like our chances."
Jefferson City (18-9-5) will start district play Monday at Grain Valley.
"Emotionally this is a very important game for them, but at the end of the day this is not the most important part of our season," Hoffmeyer said.
The Lady Jays, seeded third in Class 4 District 9, will take on sixth-seeded Sedalia Smith-Cotton at 6:30 p.m. The winner will face second-seeded Grain Valley at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals.
The championship match is set for 8 p.m. Wednesday.
"We feel confident. I think our kids are ready to go," Hoffmeyer said. " Effort is big in our gym. It's something that we preach every single day from the second they step in there. Our kids gave effort. They are working hard. They were doing the things they are capable of doing, it just comes down to execution."
III
In Thursday's JV match, Helias was able to hold on to win 25-19, 26-24 to improve its record to 17-8-2.
Cate Albertson led the Lady Crusaders with eight kills. Jordan Benward and Molly Bruns each added five kills.
Claire Bonnot recorded 19 assists for Helias. Lacey Heidbrink led Helias with 10 digs.
Kayla Walkers had nine kills and two blocks for the Lady Jays. Paige Reeser finished with 18 assists, while Hannah Reid had 10 service points, two aces and six digs.
Jefferson City's record dropped to 17-11-2.
Jefferson City won the freshman match 25-14, 25-20 to improve its record to 16-12-3.
Sarah Linthacum led the Lady Jays with 12 kills and three blocks. Abby Farris and Daja Crumble finished with 10 and eight digs, respectively. Joey Turner tallied 15 assists and six digs.
Helen Pool and Natalie Schlup paced Helias' offensive attack with seven and five kills, respectively.
Abby Magee tallied nine assists, while Ashley Fennewald had 17 digs.
Helias' freshman record is 23-6-2.