No. 1 Crusaders fend off pesky Bears

FORT MADISON – The Holy Trinity Crusaders got a little bit of a sense of what SEI Super Conference play is going to be like Tuesday night.
The Crusaders had to go four sets to dispatch of Danville (2-6) at Shottenkirk Gym 25-14, 25-20, 22-25, 25-19 to move to 4-1 on the year. The Crusaders were still ranked atop the Class 1A board this week after dropping a match with Wilton, the Class 3A No. 9 team at Wapello in a tiebreaker 12-15.
It seemed early that the Crusaders would roll to a quick night with the 11-point win in the first set. But the pesky Bears rallied in the second set after trailing the entire night to tie things up at 19. Olivia Bendlage put together three kills in the final four points and scored a shot to the right side of the Danville defense to give HTC the second set.
Danville started even with the Crusaders in the third set and pulled ahead by two at 5-3 with a defensive error by HTC. A kill from Adalyn Kruse from the left across the front tied things back up at six.
Danville would go on a 3-0 run for a 9-6 lead but HTC would battle back to tie things up at 11. Brynley Wenig then served five straight points for a 16-11 lead before Bendlage pushed a kill over the net to break the string.
Holy Trinity would trail the rest of the third set closing the gap to 22-24, but a long attack from the Crusaders would end the set and force a fourth game.
Holy Trinity jumped out to a 17-6 lead and looked to be dropping the hammer on the Bears, but at 23-11, Danville went on a 8-0 run to trail by four at 23-19. Kruse would get a nice set coming up from the midrow and hit a bomb through the center to end the Bears’ rally.
An attack error from Danville sophomore Alivia Bauer, who kept the Crusaders busy all night from the right side of the Danville offense, ended the match and the night.
HTC Head Coach Melissa Freesmeier said Danville has been improving and Bauer was a problem all night.
“They have been getting better and better and  #1, she's a stud. She did a great job tonight.  She moved around the ball well,” Freesmeier said.
She said the girls seemed to get comfortable after the first set and didn’t come out with their usual fight in the second.
“After set one, I think we got comfortable instead of just coming out the way should. We talked about it at the break, but you know we can talk it about what we’ve gotta do, but you have to go do it. But give Danville credit - they came after it,” Freesmeier said.

“We made too many mistakes in set three with missed serves and hitting errors - things that we can't do all the time if we're going to be a high caliber team. But we stuck it out."
Kruse, who finished with 22 kills on the night and attacked more than 50 times, said the Crusaders need to trust each other when sets get tough.
“I show that I have trust in them and they can trust in me. Trust is the main factor in volleyball,” Kruse said.
Freesmeier said Kruse, along with Presley Myers, have been swinging well and are very flexible in the rotation.
“Adalyn has a tremendous hit and she can play in the middle for me. We don’t have a true middle yet. But it’s nice to have her and Presley in the front row at opposite times because they are the true hitters,” Freesmeier said.
The Crusaders were playing in their first match not with a tournament vibe. They played in the Wapello tournament, but usually they have been to a weekend tournament in the middle of the state by the time conference play starts.
Kruse said she prefers the matches over the tournaments as the home crowd and the noise get her game-ready.
“I’d rather play games than tournaments. They're more fun and it’s a better environment to me. A loud environment is my favorite.”
Freesmeier said with the No. 1 ranking on the Crusaders' shoulders, everyone is coming to get a set or a win.
“We get everyone’s best game and that means we’re just going to get better and better.”
Myers finished with 15 kills on 26-30 hitting. She was also 15-of-16 serving with two aces. Bendlage had 10 kills.  Layne Schmitt gave the Crusaders some valuable minutes and helped from the service line going 13 of 13 with three aces. She also had seven digs in the final three sets. Elizabeth Griffin was the star of the night at the line going 17-of-17 with four aces. She had 12 digs. Kruse had 25 assists and Griffin added 21.
The Crusaders take on perennial SEI Super Conference rival West Burlington (4-6) on Thursday at home, and then travel to Centerville for an 8-team tournament on Saturday.