Helias volleyball coach David Harris was sure Tuesday night's match was going to go to a third set.
The Carthage Lady Tigers had other ideas.
The Lady Crusaders were two points from forcing a tiebreaking third set at Rackers Fieldhouse, but the Lady Tigers rallied with four consecutive points to sweep Helias 25-13, 25-23.
"We just kind of shot ourselves in the foot right at the end," Harris said. "I thought we were going to go three (sets), I really did."
Helias led 23-21 in the second set, when Addi Blagg got a kill to give the serve back to Carthage. Alexa Boyle followed with another kill, this time on a free ball, to tie the set at 23.
A Helias attack error gave Carthage a one-point lead and Blagg finished the 4-0 run with a successful block to end the match, handing the Lady Crusaders their first two-set loss at home since the 2016 season.
"In games like that, a two-point lead is huge," Harris said. "If you get a side-out, then it's a three-point lead.
"As long as you keep siding out, you're going to win. At 23-21, odds are you're going to win most of those games."
Helias and Carthage faced each other three times this summer. They split two of the matches and Helias won the third.
However, Carthage has come in with more experience in the young season. Through the first two-and-a-half weeks, the Lady Tigers have played in two tournaments, and Tuesday was already their 17th match.
It was just the Lady Crusaders' fifth match of the season.
"You really improve a lot during tournaments," Harris said. "You get to play a lot, you get a chance to correct things right away instead of having to wait two or three days."
Carthage won 14 of the last 19 points to take the first set easily.
"In the first set, every mistake we made, they took advantage of it," Harris said. "And we committed a lot of mistakes."
Helias struggled in the opening set with its serve-receive against Carthage, with several balls traveling back unintentionally over the net on just the first hit.
"At one point in the first set, we had five or six 'over' passes, and that's just like giving the other team a free ball," Harris said.
Jordan Benward had a pair of kills to pull Helias to within three points at 12-9, but Grace Schriever and Boyle had back-to-back kills, giving the momentum back to the Lady Tigers.
Before the second set, Harris made some changes to the Helias lineup.
"I tried to get some new blood, maybe some new energy in there, and it seemed to be working for a while," he said.
Chapel Dobbs and Grace Wilding each had a kill early in the second set, and Cate Albertson knocked the ball with an over-the-head bump into a hole in the middle of the Carthage defense for an unlikely kill.
"She's done that several times this year," Harris said.
Helias trailed 15-13, but another kill by Benward turned the momentum back to the Lady Crusaders after a timeout.
"That was big," Harris said. "We work on that all the time, first-ball kills off of their serve."
Helias led 21-17 late in the second set following a kill by Dobbs. Cadie Buschjost made a point-saving hit earlier in the volley to keep the ball alive.
Lauren Strope added a kill and Carthage had an attack error to make the score 23-21 Helias.
"In the second set, I thought we played much better," Harris said. "We started out a little rough, but then we got better as we went along."
Benward led Helias with six kills, while Strope finished with three. Claire Bonnot and Landrey VanOverschelde had eight and seven assists, respectively.
Lacey Heidbrink added five digs and Albertson finished with two blocks.
Boyle had a match-high 10 kills to lead Carthage (12-4-1).
Helias (2-3) hosts Battle today. The freshman and JV matches start at 5:30 p.m., with the varsity to follow at 7 p.m.
In the JV match, Helias won 25-12, 25-21 to improve to 6-0-3. Beth Luebbert had six kills, while Grace Verslues finished with 10 assists and eight digs for the Lady Crusaders.
Helias dropped the freshman match 26-28, 23-25 to fall to 9-2. Hannah Luetkemeyer had five kills, Josie Morasch had nine assists and Sarah Voss added nine digs.