After a few early blocks led to points for Blair Oaks, Helias knew it needed to make an adjustment to its hitting.
The Lady Crusaders' answer was to go over the block, and they ended two of the three sets Wednesday night with kills off the opponent's fingertips.
"We always talk about swing high, swing high," Helias coach David Harris said following a 25-15, 25-19, 25-19 victory at Rackers Fieldhouse. "And so then from then on we did a pretty good job of swinging high and hitting off their hands. It's hard to block high line."
Cate Albertson began the match with two of her seven kills before a Madi Rissmiller kill and a Sarah Girard block tied it at 2.
Autumn Bax added a block at 11-5 and an Emma Schroeder block kept Blair Oaks within 16-10.
"Our front line did really well tonight," Blair Oaks coach Megan Distler said. "They started coming on, they started getting some really good touches and keeping the ball on their side of the net and helping our defense out."
But Helias got rolling. Lady Crusaders libero Lacey Heidbrink got some key digs to stop the Blair Oaks attack and Jacie Buschjost helped close it out with two of her eight kills in the final three points of the opening set.
The final kill grazed the fingertips of a Lady Falcon.
"The last several teams have been all been tall," Harris said. " That's been an emphasis. We haven't really had practices to really work on it, we've just been talking about it."
Blair Oaks scored the first three points of the second set, including a kill and a block from Elsie Villmer, who had seven kills.
Helias later went on a 10-0 run to lead 14-6 and led by as many as 11 at 21-10 following a Buschjost kill.
The Lady Falcons fought back. Alyssa Hargus ended the run with a kill, Bax added a kill to make it 22-17 and Emily Tellman followed with one of her four aces.
"Our serving has really come on strong here the last couple of days, which is good," Distler said. "Hopefully that'll carry over here into districts.
Blair Oaks closed to within 23-20 on a Villmer kills before a Sydney Mingucci kill made it set point.
After a Bax kill, a Blair Oaks attacking error closed out the set.
"I was proud that they kept fighting and kind of kept themselves in that game," Distler said.
Helias never trailed in the third set, leading 5-2 on an Annica Luebbering dig plus a Grace Wilding kill.
Luebbering had 15 digs while Heidbrink finished with a game-high 24.
"We got back to playing really good defense where we're reading the hitters," Harris said.
The Lady Crusaders led by as many as nine at 19-10 before the Lady Falcons battled back again.
A Villmer kill and a Tellman ace made it 21-18 before Helias closed the match on a 3-1 spurt.
A Chapel Dobbs kill off the fingertips of a Lady Falcon ended it.
Dobbs led Helias with 12 kills.
Landrey VanOverschelde finished with 16 assists and Grace Verslues had 13.
Rissmiller led Blair Oaks with 12 assists, and Bax and Kennedy Flanner each had five kills.
Peyton Bohl had 14 digs to lead the Lady Falcons.
Blair Oaks (23-8) will turn its focus on the postseason with play in the Class 3 District 8 Tournament beginning Monday in Wardsville.
Blair Oaks is the No. 2 seed and will take on No. 3 seed Fatima at 5 p.m. Monday.
Hermann, the No. 1 seed, will face either No. 4 seed Southern Boone or No. 5 seed Fulton at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
The championship match is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Helias (24-4-2) will play its fourth match in four days today against Eldon.
The freshman match will start at 5 p.m., the JV match will be played around 6 p.m. and the varsity will begin around 7 p.m.
The Blair Oaks JV team remained undefeated Wednesday with a 25-21, 26-24 win, improving its record to 25-0-1.
"I think that group just really gels well together," Distler said. "They play really well together, they are pretty scrappy on defense and we have some bigger hitters up in the front row that have been working hard."
Abbi Wieberg had six kills, and Aubrey Hardwick, Bailey Braun and Kenley Mitchell each added five kills.
Hardwick and Braun added nine and eight digs, respectively.
Libby Juergensmeyer tallied 18 assists and two aces.
For Helias, Ava Millard and Camryn Strope each had 11 digs, Riley Jaegers tallied 13 assists and Summer Hake added seven kills and two blocks.
Helias won the freshman match 25-16, 25-14 to improve to 22-4-3.
Isabella Herrbold recorded 14 service points, five aces and six digs, Adalyn Koelling led with nine kills and two blocks, Addisyn Bryant had 11 assists and Maryn Randolph led with seven digs.