FORT MADISON - Almost the entire second game of Holy Trinity’s sweep of Wayne in Monday’s Class 1A volleyball first-round match was just Brooke Mueller serving.
Mueller served 23 consecutive points for the No. 9 Crusaders on a night when they dominated from the service line.
Holy Trinity’s 25-8, 25-2, 25-7 win was a 44-minute clinic to open the postseason.
The Crusaders’ locker room door was decorated like a Christmas present, with a sign that read, “The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.”
This match was a festival of serves.
Holy Trinity (26-15), which advanced to face Sigourney (23-7) in Wednesday’s quarterfinal at home, was 70-of-73 serving with 18 aces. Mueller had 11 of those, a school single-match record.
“Our serving was very, very aggressive tonight,” Holy Trinity coach Melissa Freesmeier said. “That said a lot.”
The second game was tied at 1 when Mueller stepped up to serve. Her third serve of the stretch was an ace, the first of eight for her in the run.
“Serving 23 points is awesome,” Mueller said. “It’s postseason, it’s my senior year, I want to come out and do my best. And I knew if I could serve aggressively, plus get the ball in the court, my team was there for me.”
She couldn’t serve out the game, but it ended two points later. It was so dominant that senior middle hitter Kayla Box, who comes in on the Crusaders’ second rotation, never got to play in the game.
Mueller knew it was a long streak, but wasn’t sure how long until it was over.
“I was focusing on the game, going point by point,” she said. “I wasn’t focusing on serving 25, or whatever it was. I was just focusing on getting the ball in and going a point at a time.”
Mueller said she was following the directions from Freesmeier, who signals where the serves are supposed to go.
“We practice spots all of the time that are weak in most serve-receives,” Mueller said. “I was trying to pick out those. Especially in the longer run, I was more aggressive.”
“It’s what we want to do in the postseason,” Freesmeier said. “We want to be the aggressor. We want to force people out of system. We thought if we could keep them out of system, it would be a good night for us. And our kids proved that was true.
“Brooke served a whole bunch. And her serving had a lot of stuff on it. That really helped a lot.”
The third game featured another impressive streak, when Taegan Denning had six consecutive aces to get the Crusaders to match point.
“Taegan came in and that run at the end,” Freesmeier said.
The Crusaders also dominated up front. Mary Kate Bendlage had 13 kills and four blocks. Presley Myers had 10 kills and five blocks.
“We had a big presence at the net — Pres and MK, and when Kayla was in there,” Freesmeier said. “That was big, too.”
Bendlage added eight digs and one assist. Anna Bendlage had 26 assists, six digs and a block. Denning was 10-of-10 serving with six aces, and added a kill and six digs. Box had three kills and a block. Mueller had four kills, nine digs and a block. Teagan Snaadt had three digs. Alexa Dingman was 8-of-8 serving and had a dig. Laura Mehmert was 7-of-7 serving with an ace.
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