Lady Crusaders head back to state

WILLIAMSBURG — This one wasn’t going to get away.
Not after the pain of the missed opportunity from last year that the returning members of Holy Trinity’s volleyball team remembered.
And when Olivia Bendlage’s kill on match point hit the court, she fell to her knees in celebration, and her teammates quickly joined her.
The Crusaders are going back to the Class 1A state tournament after falling one step short last season, sweeping BCLUW 25-20, 25-13, 25-16 in Wednesday’s Region 5 final at Williamsburg High School.
Holy Trinity (30-6), sixth in the final IGHSAU rankings of the season, will be the fifth seed in the state tournament, playing fourth seed Wapsie Valley (28-13) in Tuesday’s 8 p.m. quarterfinal at Xtream Arena in Coralville.
It was a year ago, in the regional final against Dunkerton, when the Crusaders won the first two sets and then couldn’t finish off the win.
Not this time.
Not this team.
“We didn't get to go (to state) last year,” said senior Adalyn Kruse, whose 16-kill night punctuated this victory. “Pushing and leaning on each other really just made it so easy to win this year.”
“After the second set, tonight we said we didn't want to get comfortable,” Bendlage said. “We wanted to not relax because we were up two sets. We said, ‘Let’s go get it done.’”
“These kids were driven all year,” Holy Trinity coach Melissa Freesmeier said. “The coaching staff was driven all year. We didn’t want to miss out on going to state.”
Still, it was a point that Freesmeier and her staff wanted to make after the Crusaders had finished a dominating second set on this night.
“We’re serious on the bench, but we like to keep things loose,” Freesmeier said, smiling. “One of my assistants said, "Hey, don't mess this up. And the players are, like, ‘Boooooo.’ But you know in their minds it was there.”
“We all knew that we could finish it off, but we just had to stay up,” senior Elizabeth Griffin said. “That was our only worry, that we had to keep the same tone, the same energy.”
BCLUW stayed close to the Crusaders throughout the third set, trailing only 16-14 before Holy Trinity scored the next four points on a run started by a Makayla Simpson kill and ended with an ace by freshman Kate Pieper.
Holy Trinity would then get to match point after another kill by Simpson, then Bendlage finished the match with her kill.

“That definitely felt good,” Bendlage said.
“Tonight we kept going,” Kruse said. “We finished it.”
There were still some jitters early for the Crusaders, who fell behind 11-5 in the first set before Freesmeier called a timeout.
“You’re going to have that,” Freesmeier said. “Once we settled in, we just played hard, picking up some balls, making the plays.
“We were just so hyped and I feel like that kind of took a little toll on us,” Griffin said. “I think we just had to step back in and realize that, yes, we have this. Once we did that, our hitters did great, our blocking was amazing, and I think everyone was just here to play.”
“I think we just had to trust in each other,” Kruse said.
Griffin remembered what it was like last season, when the Crusaders were at the state tournament, but just watching from the seats.
“We all still had fun, but it just wasn't the same being on the court and playing,” she said.
Now the Crusaders will be playing again.
“Final time,” Kruse said. “And I’m really excited.”
HOLY TRINITY STATISTICS
Kills — Adalyn Kruse 16, Olivia Bendlage 8, Kate Pieper 8, Makayla Simpson 6, Elizabeth Griffin 2, Kymber Jones 2.
Serving — Griffin 17-18 (4 aces), Bendlage 15-15 (2), A.Kruse 12-12, Pieper 9-9 (1), Brynn Denning 6-7 (1), Layne Schmitt 5-5
Digs — Denning 23, Bendlage 20, A.Kruse 12, Griffin 11, Brooklyn Scheetz 8, Pieper 5, Schmitt 2.
Assists — Griffin 39, Scheetz 2
Blocks — Bendlage 1, Jones 1, Pieper 1