Things were back to normal Thursday night for the Helias Lady Crusaders in their volleyball match against the Rock Bridge Bruins.
With their roster back to full strength, the Lady Crusaders picked up their second win this week at Rackers Fieldhouse, sweeping the Bruins 25-15, 25-12.
"I was very pleased with how we played," Helias coach David Harris said. "In the first set, we had a little execution problem, but our serve-receive was really good, we had some good sets and we blocked very well tonight."
Senior captain Regan Bruns returned to the court for the first time in two weeks Thursday for Helias. She suffered a concussion from an errant hit on a ball that struck her in the head during warmups while she was working the Lady Crusaders' freshman tournament Sept. 9.
Bruns had not played since, having to go through concussion protocol.
"This was the first time since then that she's been able to be cleared and play," Harris said. "She looked pretty good tonight."
Jada Oldham recorded six straight service points to open the first set for Helias, adding an ace during that span. Korie Otto followed with a kill to extend the early lead to 9-1.
The Lady Crusaders led by as many as nine points early on, but Rock Bridge battled back to make the score 16-11.
"When they called a timeout when they had 11 points, I said in the timeout that 10 of their points were our errors, whether they were serving, hitting, setting," Harris said. "But we were being aggressive, which is good. I'd rather have some mistakes from being aggressive than not being aggressive."
Kelsey Brester stretched the lead back to nine at 22-13 with a kill and Krystal Brauner severed an ace to give Helias its first double-digit lead of the match, leading to another Rock Bridge timeout.
The Bruins scored the next two points, but Callie Henson had a kill for Helias and Rock Bridge followed with an error to give the first set to the Lady Crusaders.
Helias had another strong start to the second set, taking a 6-1 lead after a kill from Hannah Borchelt, who had a team-high nine kills for the Lady Crusaders.
"We talk all the time, we want to start fast," Harris said. "We were able to do that in both of these sets."
Rock Bridge scored its first five points off Helias errors, keeping within range, but the Lady Crusaders then reeled off five straight points to lead 17-7.
Borchelt recorded back-to-back points with a kill and then a block to make the score 23-10. Like the first set, Rock Bridge then scored back-to-back points, only for Helias to return the favor to end the match.
Ellie Rockers and Otto finished with six and five kills, respectively, while Borchelt and Erin Wyrick each had two blocks. Bradi Berhorst had a team-high eight digs and Oldham added 20 assists.
Helias (18-2) plays its third straight match at home Tuesday, hosting the Battle Spartans.
"Tonight was better than Tuesday," Harris said. " This is the time of the year when you can get tired, so I'm going to give them a few days off the next couple of weeks and hopefully that will get them refreshed and recharged and ready to finish the season well."
In the JV match, Helias beat Rock Bridge in straight sets 25-19, 25-15 to improve to 13-4-2.
Cate Albertson had a team-high nine kills for Helias, while Claire Bonnot finished with 21 assists. Molly Bruns had three blocks, Gracie Bernskoetter added 10 digs and Jordan Benward served six aces.
Helias also won the freshman match 25-4, 25-15 to improve to 14-2.
Cadie Buschjost and Grace Wilding finished with eight and seven kills, respectively, and Abby Magee had 20 assists. Ella Randolph finished with 11 digs.