John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
FORT MADISON - Forget that the margin for error on the shot was essentially nothing.
Taegan Denning knew her biggest hit of the night was perfect.
Denning’s crucial save in the fourth set helped spark Holy Trinity’s final run in a 25-19, 15-25, 25-12, 25-22 win over Notre Dame in Monday’s Class 1A Region 8 semifinal at Shottenkirk Gym.
The third-ranked Crusaders (30-10) advanced to Wednesday’s regional final against No. 12 Edgewood-Colesburg (29-13) at West Liberty High School.
To get there, though, the Crusaders had to beat a familiar rival that they’ve been running into a lot in the postseason over the last few seasons. And they had to survive a clunker of a second set that gave the Nikes (26-15) momentum after they were challenged by Holy Trinity’s opening-set run.
“This rivalry is definitely for real. Notre Dame never gave up a point to us,” said Holy Trinity senior Mary Kate Bendlage. “They fought for every single point. They showed us, if we played the way we did in the second set, they were going to take it from us. When we came back, it really showed us a lot.”
The Crusaders got contributions from all seven players who played, but no shot was as big as the one from Denning late in the fourth set.
Holy Trinity had an 18-15 lead when, after a long rally, an errant hit by the Crusaders sent the ball to the left side of the net, near the sideline. Denning raced to get into position, but with her angle, it didn’t look like she would have a good shot.
But Denning fit the ball into a gap that was as wide as the volleyball. An inch to the left, and it would have clipped the antenna. An inch to the right, and it doesn’t get over the net.
Instead, it fell to the court just out of reach of the Notre Dame defense.
“I knew that no one was across, and I could get the shot there,” Denning said. “I just placed it where it needed to go.”
“It was awesome,” Holy Trinity coach Melissa Freesmeier said. “She just stayed with it. She’s a kid who doesn’t get recognition because she’s a silent player. But we know she can do some big things. That was amazing. She kept the ball in play, and I think that stunned them.
“A lot of people give up on that ball, and she did not.”
It touched off a wild celebration among the Crusaders.
“I thought, literally, ‘Oh, my God,’” I don’t know how she managed to do that,” Bendlage said. “She made it look picture perfect. It was like … oh, my God, it was so good.”
“That was definitely big,” senior Natalie Randolph said. “Everybody got so hyped.”
It even impressed the one who hit it.
“I was like, ‘Whoa, that was good,’” Denning said, laughing. “But I knew we still had to keep going.”
She was right.
Holy Trinity led 22-16 and seemed in control, before the Nikes would score the next six points. But the Crusaders would get the ball back on a hitting error, and then scored the final two points on back-to-back kills by Presley Myers.
Holy Trinity opened with a strong first set. Myers got the first two points off a kill and a block, and a five-point run by the Crusaders left the Nikes chasing points the rest of the set.
But whatever momentum Holy Trinity had disappeared in the second set. Notre Dame scored the first four points, and a six-point run that had Freesmeier calling two timeouts shook the Crusaders.
“We quit being aggressive,” Freesmeier said. “We were just playing defense, we weren’t putting the ball over the net. And that’s not our style. We’ve got to stay on the offense.”
“In the locker room, we said, ‘Hey, that’s not us. We made way too many errors,’” Bendlage said. “We couldn’t get any flow in the second set.”
“You’ve got to stay up,” libero Teagan Snaadt said. “Losing a set doesn’t mean you’ve lost the whole game. We just had to come out with the same energy that we had in the first set.”
And so the Crusaders did behind the defense of Snaadt and the rest of the Crusaders. Snaadt had 24 digs, Bendlage had 23, Randolph had 18 and Denning had 15. Myers added six digs and five blocks.
“We have so many players who are so athletic, so quick, that when we’re not in the right spot at the moment, we can read hitters and get to the ball,” Bendlage said.
“We had to just be fundamental, do the little things that we needed,” Randolph said.
“The coaches tell us there is no better-trained team than us,” Denning said. “And I think we just embrace that.”
Snaadt, who was also 12-of-12 serving with an ace, has been especially impressive on defense during the season and into the postseason.
“I think it’s just reading the ball, just knowing that I can get to any ball I set my mind to,” she said. “Just staying in my position, and knowing wherever it’s hit on the floor I can get it.”
“I’m proud of how far she’s come from last year to this year,” Freesmeier said. “She proved it tonight. As the games get bigger, she gets better.”
Bendlage led the Crusaders with 15 kills. Myers had 10, Randolph had nine, and Denning and Adalyn Kruse had seven. Anna Bendlage had three kills, all at crucial times.
Randolph had 20 assists, while Anna Bendlage had 17 to go with her eight digs and two blocks. Denning was 17-of-18 serving with two aces. Myers was 14-of-15 serving with an ace. Randolph was 13-of-13 serving with an ace. Mary Kate Bendlage was 12-of-12 serving with an ace.
The Crusaders are now a step away from the state tournament with a postseason run in which they have dropped just one set.
“We’ve just been playing the way we’re capable of playing,” Denning said. “And we want to keep that going.”
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