Crusaders notch yet another state volleyball tourney bid

WEST LIBERTY — Holy Trinity knows the way to Coralville.
Getting through the regional final this time was quite a bumpy road.
The Crusaders earned their fourth consecutive trip to the Class 1A state tournament in Wednesday’s Region 2 final against Calamus-Wheatland.
Oh, did they earn it. 
The 25-12, 27-25, 28-26 win was an impressive climb for the third-ranked Crusaders.
They trailed 10-3 and 18-11 in the second set, then faced set point — and won.
They trailed 20-8 in the third set, faced set point at 24-19 and 25-24 — and won.
“It was remarkable,” Holy Trinity coach Melissa Freesmeier said. “At no time were they going to give up.”
“It says we can do anything,” said freshman outside hitter Olivia Bendlage, who delivered the match-winning kill. “That we’re willing to fight back for anything and everything.”
“I think it shows we can get through anything,” junior middle hitter Presley Myers said.
Holy Trinity (29-12) will be the third seed in next week’s state tournament, playing sixth-seed BCLUW (31-10) in Tuesday’s 8:25 p.m. quarterfinal at Xtream Arena.
The Crusaders didn’t drop a set in three regional matches. But there are sweeps, and then there was this one.
“You could see it in their eyes,” Freesmeier said. “They were never defeated.”
“We just played with a lot of grit,” senior setter Anna Bendlage said. “Even when we were going through all of the runs they had, we knew we were going to give our best effort.
“Which we did.”
The Crusaders reached the state championship match last season, and while this team had plenty of key players back from that team, there were still new faces to fit in, and it showed early in the season.
Holy Trinity, though, rolled through SEI Superconference South Division play, won the conference tournament, and found its way back to a familiar November site.
“We’ve been a little bit doubted because of what we lost from last year,” said Anna Bendlage, who has been a part of every team in this state tournament run. “It’s so fun to be going back.”
“Making it there four years in a row, it doesn’t happen very often,” senior libero Teagan Snaadt said.
The first set seemed easy. Holy Trinity raced to a 10-4 lead then, up 17-11, scored eight of the last nine points.
Then came the challenges from the Warriors (26-10).
The Crusaders were so disjointed to start the second set, Freesmeier used both of her timeouts early, the second one coming with Holy Trinity down 10-4.

But then came the cut after cut of the Warriors’ lead.
Calamus-Wheatland led 23-21, then Holy Trinity scored the next three points to face set point. The Warriors battled back on two hitting errors by the Crusaders for their own set point, then Holy Trinity closed out the match on three consecutive points — a tip by Myers, a block by Myers, then a tip by outside hitter Adalyn Kruse.
“When we were chipping away, we were really, really good,” Kruse said. “We felt like we could do anything if we put our minds to it.”
“The biggest thing was keeping the ball up on our side,” Snaadt said. “Just keep going at them, keep going at them, and eventually you’re going to find a hole, or they’re going to get tired and make an error.”
It was only the beginning of the rallies.
The third set was a desperate scramble.
Calamus-Wheatland opened the set with a 6-1 run, forcing Freesmeier to take a timeout. The Warriors steadily pulled away, and when it was 20-8, they seemed in control. At 24-19, it looked like a fourth set was looming.
But the Crusaders scored five consecutive points, two coming on kills from Kruse, to tie the match. Calamus-Wheatland would get to set point twice, at 25-24 and 26-25, and each time there was a Holy Trinity answer.
Kruse had a kill to tie it at 25. Her next kill made it 27-26. Then Olivia Bendlage finished off the match.
“That third set, I don’t know what Adalyn had for kills, but she was fired up,” Freesmeier said. “And then our freshman finished it off.”
“To get that last kill means a lot to me,” Olivia Bendlage said.
“We responded the right way,” Myers said. “Every time we got in our circle, we were like, ‘We’re still in this.’ You had to have the mindset that you’re still in this.”
Did the road get bumpy? Absolutely.
But the Crusaders know this postseason road all too well.
“We leaned on each other and had the confidence we could do this together,” Kruse said. “That was so big.”
“When we work together, we can do anything,” Myers said.
HOLY TRINITY STATISTICS
Kills — Presley Myers 20, Adalyn Kruse 19, Anna Bendlage 4, Emma Mohrfeld 3, Olivia Bendlage 2, Elizabeth Griffin 2.
Assists — Anna Bendlage 39, Teagan Snaadt 3, Griffin 1.
Blocks — Myers 2, Mohrfeld 1, Griffin 1, Kruse 1.
Serving — Griffin 20-21 (3 aces), A.Bendlage 17-17 (2), O.Bendlage 13-14 (2), Snaadt 12-12, Kruse 6-6, Myers 6-9 (1)
Digs — Snaadt 24, O.Bendlage 14, Griffin 13, Kruse 11, A.Bendlage 9, Mohrfeld 1, Myers 1.