West Liberty, IA- #3 Holy Trinity Catholic swept their way to their fourth consecutive state tournament appearance last night after defeating Calamus-Wheatland for the Class 1A Region 2 championship. However, the 3-0 score is a bit deceiving for what occurred.
Set 1
What would become the theme for the night, Calamus-Wheatland would jump out to a small lead in the first set before the Crusaders would tie the contest at four.
Elizabeth Griffin would then lead the Crusaders on an 8-0 run and aided an eight-kill set for Presley Myers; Holy Trinity Catholic would win the first set 25-12. Myers would continue the production throughout the night, finishing with 20 kills and a 0.300 kill efficiency.
Through the postseason, Myers has now collected 53 kills and finished with kill efficiencies of 0.667, 0.333, and 0.300. Despite the nature of postseason volleyball, Myers is swinging like she has all season,
“Oh no, I don’t think I’ve really changed anything” said the junior. “I mean, I’m definitely just trying to have like, a go get it mindset. You know, me and Anna have been just working a lot, connecting really good. And honestly, everyone on the team, our connections, our communication is just like at its peak right now. And I really think we’re gonna stay on that peak, you know, throughout the state tournament. But no, I haven’t changed anything. We’ve just really been working. You know, we’re trying to have the right mindset because when it comes down to it, your mental strength is so much more important than your physical. So, we’re just trying to keep [mindset] positive.”
Unfortunately for Holy Trinity Catholic, this would be the easiest point of the night.
Set 2
Again, the Warriors would bounce out to a quick start, but this time the lead would grow to seven points at its peak with Calamus-Wheatland up 10 to 3. The biggest reason for their success was junior Haley Green finding success at the net with six of her 12 kills coming in the set.
But the Crusaders would not go away without a fight, pushing back against the Warriors, cutting the lead to 12 to 9. Miscommunication amongst the Crusader defense yielded another short run for the Warriors, gaining a 21 to 14 advantage.
Facing their first bit of adversity in the postseason, Holy Trinity Catholic managed to crawl their way back into the game, eventually tying the set at 23 after two errors by Calamus-Wheatland.
After trading points, the dynamic duo of Myers and Adalyn Kruse scored the final three points needed for the Crusaders, including a final kill by the sophomore, to take the second set 27-25. Myers discussed how important it was for the team to face adversity heading into the tournament,
“I mean, it feels really good. You know, the reality is the other teams are always going to go on runs. And to be able to lean back on that, we can like come out of that hole and overcome all the adversity. It’s good, you know, we trust each other. Especially this, I think this game teaches us a lot going into the state tournament. We just know that we can trust each other and that we can get each other out of the holes that we’re in.”
Somehow, the Crusaders would overcome a greater deficit in the final set of the Regional Championship.
Set 3
Calamus-Wheatland’s playbook had not changed, jumping out to an initial lead of 6 to 4 before taking over from the service line. The Warriors tabbed four aces on the night and kept the Crusaders out of system for over half the third set, hurdling their initial largest lead of the contest of seven to go up 20 to 8 in the set.
From that point on, Kruse played out of her mind as she tallied 11 of her 19 kills in the third set and pulled the Crusaders back into the game and gave the Crusaders their first lead of the third set on the 53rd point, 27 to 26.
An Olivia Bendlage kill on the next play sealed the victory, 28-26, for the Crusaders and their program’s 18th appearance to the state tournament. Myers and Kruse combined for 39 kills on the night and for head coach Melissa Freesmeier the duo is unstoppable,
“It feels good, Presley’s dominating. You know, she hits the ball well. She’s a presence at the net. And you know, with those two going strong and we’ve got some great support players and Anna knows where to go, you know, with the ball at the end of the day and knows what to do with the ball. And so, you know, it happened tonight. Things went well for us. So, we’re going to get in the gym tomorrow and get better and be ready for whoever may be in the tournament on Tuesday.”
This squad has gone four for four in Regional Championships, but for Myers the moment never grows stale,
“No, I mean we work all season to go to the state tournament and it’s, you know, it’s a really short, you know, three days, but it’s like it’s one of the best feelings. You know, you’re ever going to feel, and you only have a short four years of high school to experience it. So, you know, it’s totally worth it to work your butt off and miss out on some stuff all throughout the season, so you’re prepared to make it to the state tournament and I’m so excited to go next week and to just show all the incoming freshmen and everything like what it’s all about. So, they can look forward to it next year too.”
Holy Trinity Catholic secured the #3 seed for the 2024 Class 1A state tournament and will face off against #6 BCLUW in the opening round at 8:25 pm on Tuesday, November 5th. Coach Freesmeier believes this team is playing some of their best volleyball right now,
“You know when you get there, everybody’s got that opportunity and that chance and it’s, you know, who’s hot and you know, right now we’re playing some pretty good volleyball and we’re going to go up there and work hard and give it our best shot.”
KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 8:05 pm.
HTC Stats
Kills: Presley Myers 20, Adalyn Kruse 19, Anna Bendlage 4, Olivia Bendlage and Emma Mohrfeld 3, and Elizabeth Griffin 2
Assists: A. Bendlage 41, Teagan Snaadt 3, O. Bendlage 1, Griffin 1, Kruse 1
Blocks: Myers 2, Mohrfeld 2, Kruse 2, Griffin 1, O. Bendlage 1
Digs: Snaadt 24, O. Bendlage 14, Griffin 13, Kruse 11, A. Bendlage 9
Aces: Griffin 3, O. Bendlage 2, Myers 1