The Calvary Lutheran Lady Lions had one goal near the top of the list when the volleyball season began.
They wanted a rematch in the district championship against New Haven.
Calvary Lutheran was able to cross off that item Tuesday when it defeated the Russellville Lady Indians 25-5, 25-18 in the semifinals of the Class 1 District 12 Tournament.
"The first game, I was blown away," Calvary Lutheran coach Nicole Murphy said. "We played awesome.
"The second game, they did what I don't like them to do and they took their foot off the gas a little bit."
Calvary Lutheran cruised to an early lead in the first set, scoring the first six points.
Olivia Bexten recorded 10 straight service points, including three aces, to stretch the lead to 20-3. Setter Grace Smith dinked a kill over the net to finish off the opening set.
Tuesday's contest was the first time Russellville played since the death of Elizabeth Eidson, who was in a fatal car accident last Wednesday morning.
Eidson, a sophomore, was a starting middle/outside hitter for the Lady Indians.
Students in the Russellville cheering section behind the Lady Indians bench wore white bandanas with the phrase "Fly High Lizzie" inscribed on them. Calvary Lutheran volleyball players wore blue ribbons in their hair, just as they did during last Thursday's match against Battle.
"We just lost a really good person, a strong person, friend and loved one to all of us," Russellville coach Lisa Groll said of Eidson. "She was definitely the glue for this team.
"At first, I thought I was going to have to cancel this game, but they chose to play because that's what Lizzie would want."
Russellville returned to the gym Monday for the first time since Eidson passed away.
"We just kind of messed around, it wasn't really a practice," Groll said.
The Lady Indians had a few early errors against the Lady Lions and had four service errors in the opening set.
As the second set began, Russellville had shaken off the rust and began to challenge Calvary Lutheran.
Gabriela Kauffman, who finished with a team-high three kills, had a pair of kills early in the second set to give Russellville an 8-6 lead.
"I was very impressed with the way the girls played," Groll said. "Tonight, we started off slow, but they managed to set their feelings aside to play this game."
The second set remained close, until Maddie Layson took control of the serve with Calvary Lutheran leading 12-11.
Layson recorded 10 straight service points, twice posting back-to-back aces. She finished with five aces during the run - and a team-high 10 aces during the match - to extend the lead to 22-11.
"I gave them a job today when I got here," Murphy said. "I said we needed to work on serves. Hopefully we made an impression on New Haven's mind with our serves."
Closing the second set took some work for Calvary Lutheran, which committed two lifting violations and two out-of-rotation violations to make the score 24-18.
Murphy said her players were just overthinking for a bit.
"We had some miscommunication errors," she said. "We had a few balls that were too high in the air and we freaked out instead of keeping our calm and cool composure."
Layson and Bexten each had a team-high four kills, while Jaelyn Engelbrecht finished with three kills and 13 digs. Smith had 15 assists and Bexten served six aces.
Kauffman and Layne Volkart each served an ace for Russellville (2-20-2) and Skylar Potts had one block.
"I told them I was very impressed, and once they left the locker room to hold their heads up high," Groll said of her postgame talk with her players. "Not only myself, but also coach (Tara) Hudson, the student body that came out to cheer us on and the faculty that was here are very, very proud."
Now the next goal for the Lady Lions is to avenge last year's district championship defeat. No. 2 Calvary Lutheran (21-5-2) will host top-ranked New Haven (23-7-3) at 6 p.m. tonight.
"They're a solid team, they're very experienced," Murphy said of New Haven. "They have a lot of seniors. Whenever I talk about them, I say all the time that they're experienced. They have some big hitters."
Last season in New Haven, the Lady Shamrocks defeated the Lady Lion 25-16, 25-13 to take the district title, on their way to finishing third in Class 1.
"We're very similar, but they're just a little more experienced because of they're schedule," Murphy said. "They stack a heavy schedule during the year, and that's one of the things I wish we could do - and we're going to try to do next year - is to stack a heavier schedule."
New Haven returns two all-state players from last year's team and is led by senior middle hitter Emma Engelbrecht, who had a team-high 327 kills entering the districts.
"She's their go-to hitter," Murphy said. "I know when people look at our team, they think Olivia Bexten is our go-to hitter. Like that, we're very similar. They run a 5-1 offense, we run a 5-1.
"It's honestly going to be whoever comes out and wants it. They may be more experienced, but I think we've made huge improvements throughout the year."
The district tournament began Tuesday with No. 4 Chamois winning 25-7, 25-10 against fifth-seeded Missouri School for the Deaf in the first round.
Following Calvary's win, New Haven routed Chamois 25-6, 25-4 in the second semifinal. After Chamois scored the first two points of the first set, New Haven scored the next 16 points. The Lady Shamrocks also had 13 unanswered points in the second set.