The Helias volleyball team has faced a murderer's row to open the season.
But so far, it's the Lady Crusaders who have been killing the competition.
Helias made it 6-for-6 on Thursday, with the latest victim this season being the Duchesne Pioneers, as the Lady Crusaders cruised to a 25-15, 25-13 win at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"It's always good to be undefeated," Helias coach David Harris said. "... We go into every game with the thought that the target's on our back. One, because we're Helias and everybody wants to beat us. And two, we have had a good start and everybody is going to try to be that one that takes us down first."
Duchesne wasn't the one to do that. The Pioneers did jump out to a 2-0 lead in each game, but couldn't survive Helias' charge after that.
"I love playing hard teams," said Helias middle hitter Erica Haslag, who led the Lady Crusaders with seven kills. "I love coming out when I know we can get the fans here. We told everyone at school today, "This is going to be a good team tonight, let's everyone come out and support us.' And we had a great fan base today."
The first game was tied five times in the early going, the last time at 6. That's when the Lady Crusaders took control with a 7-0 spurt sandwiched around a Duchesne timeout.
"Our execution wasn't real crisp, and when they called timeout in that first game (with Helias leading 11-6), every single one of their points was an error on us," Harris said. "The end result was OK, I just wasn't real pleased with how we got there."
The Pioneers never got closer than six points the rest of the game, with Helias' final two points coming on kills by Molly Sandbothe.
The second game was very similar to the first. After another 2-0 lead for Duchesne, the game was tied five times. This time, the last tie was at 8, that coming on a kill by Helias' Lindsey Griggs for a sideout. Helias tacked on four more points on its own serve immediately after that, and ended up winning 12 of the next 14 points to basically end it.
Helias won the final four points of the match on kills by Griggs and Haslag, a hitting error by Duchesne, and a block by Laura Schieber.
"We're playing really well together," Haslag said. "... We've got super chemistry. Tonight was kind of a rough night for us, rougher than it has been, but still a great night."
In addition to Haslag's seven kills, she tied for the team lead with two blocks, joining Schieber, Sandbothe and Griggs. Sandbothe added five kills, Ashley Dudenhoeffer dished out 18 assists, Griggs had a team-high nine digs and Blake Berhorst added eight digs.
"We had flashes where we played really well," Harris said. "I thought we were a roller coaster tonight, up and down, not real consistent. ... But on the positive side, it is good to see we can fight through some of those little issues like hitting errors and passing errors and still find a way to win."
Helias plays at 6:30 p.m. Monday when it hosts Camdenton.
III
Thursday's win came on the heels of some big news for the Lady Crusaders, as Helias recently earned a pair of notable honors.
Dudenhoeffer was named the MaxPreps/American Volleyball Coaches Association high school player of the week for Missouri for the period covering Aug. 25-31.
During a 4-0 week for Helias, the junior averaged 11.3 assists and 2.9 digs per game. Overall, she dished out 102 assists and the team hit .287 in those matches. She also had nine aces.
"I think Ashley is our second one ever to get that award, Julia Whitfield got it once back in 2009," Harris said. "There have been times I thought we had players that probably deserved it, but when you're talking about everybody in the state, people are looking at all kinds of stats and have a lot to consider.
"... She knows, and we know, that even though it's an individual honor, it took a team effort to get her that. The defense and serve-receive passers have to do their job before she can do hers, and obviously she has so weapons to choose from who are doing their jobs, also."
Haslag, meanwhile, was one of just 19 players in Missouri to be named to the Under Armour Watch List. It identifies elite high-school seniors who have the potential to be considered for the Under Armour High School All-America Awards Program. It's comprised of players from all across the country who have received some type of honor (all-state, AVCA/Max Preps Players of the Week, etc.) that identifies them as a top player in their region.
III
Helias made a sweep of Thursday by taking wins in the JV and varsity matches.
In the JV match, Helias posted a 20-25, 25-16, 25-20 win.
Abby Shepard had 12 assists for the Lady Crusaders (6-0) and Lexy Lamb had 11, while Regan Bruns racked up nine kills. Bradi Berhorst had 13 digs, Erin Wyrick had three blocks and Laura Vanderfeltz had nine service points with two aces.
Helias took the freshman match 25-10, 25-5.
Grace Twehous had 12 service points, including eight aces, to pace Helias (6-0). Alyssa Sullivan had seven assists, Morgan Miles had four kills and Kendal Hagenhoff had three digs.