Crusaders, Hawks advance in SEISC pool play

FORT MADISON - Holy Trinity has played a lot of volleyball this week, and hasn’t lost a match.
For that matter, the No. 4 (Class 1A) Crusaders haven’t lost a set.
Holy Trinity rolled through its pool in the SEI Superconference Tournament at Shottenkirk Gym on Thursday night, defeating Louisa-Muscatine (21-4, 21-7), Hillcrest Academy (21-12, 21-4) and Van Buren County (21-9, 21-17).
The Crusaders and Hillcrest Academy, which went 2-1 in the pool, advanced to Saturday’s final rounds at Southeastern Community College in West Burlington.
Holy Trinity went 4-0, with three wins over Class 4A teams, without dropping a set in its own tournament on Monday, and kept that momentum going against teams from its own conference.
“We’re definitely playing well right now,” said freshman Olivia Bendlage, who had 14 kills in the three matches. “In practice, we’ve been working on our passes and our connections with our setters, to make sure we can get our offense going faster.”
“I think our communication as a team has been going well,” said senior Anna Bendlage, who had 22 assists. “I think that we've been using all of our hitters, which is good, and I think that our passing has been on point, and we’re serving the ball well. When all of that comes together, we can really get our offense going.”
“It’s just consistency,” Holy Trinity coach Melissa Freesmeier said. “We’re getting things done. We're not missing a lot of serves. We're just doing the little things to keep us alive.”
The Crusaders rolled through their three matches in just under 2 ½ hours.
“Tonight, I thought, you know, we wrapped it up pretty quickly, and just took care of business,” Freesmeier said. “It’s an early night for us, so that's a good thing.”
The Crusaders were coming off a 3-3 showing at the Lisbon Tournament last Saturday that included two matches against No. 14 (Class 3A) Anamosa and one against No. 10 (Class 2A) West Burlington.
“We played some good competition, and I think we got tired the later we played,” Olivia Bendlage said. “So we’ve had the mindset this week to stay stronger and be ready for anything.”
“I think, playing the way we did against a ranked 3A team, it showed us we are a good team,” Anna Bendlage said. “We just have to put all of our pieces together to be able to do that.”
The Crusaders have been a fixture in the Saturday round of the conference tournament throughout the years, so they know what to expect.
“I just tell (the younger players) that it's a big environment, there's a lot of people there but it's just still a normal game,” said Anna Bendlage. “Just still do the same things that we do every night and then we'll get through it."
“You just tell them to lean on your teammates and do what you do,” Freesmeier said. “They know how to play volleyball. They've been in big tournaments with their club teams, so I just tell them to play with their friends and have fun with it.”
Central Lee also advanced to the Championships on Saturday and will face the Crusaders in one of the two opening round matches starting at 5 p.m.
HOLY TRINITY STATISTICS
Kills — Presley Myers 15, Olivia Bendlage 14, Adalyn Kruse 10, Anna Bendlage 7, Emma Mohrfeld 4, Elizabeth Griffin 3.
Assists — A.Bendlage 22, Griffin 19, Teagan Snaadt 7, Kruse 2, O.Bendlage 1.
Serving — A. Bendlage 30-31 (7 aces), Snaadt 22-23 (6), Myers 14-14 (4), Griffin 14-15 (2), Eva Denning 13-13 (4), O.Bendlage 12-13 (1), Kruse 11-12 (4).
Digs — Snaadt 20, O.Bendlage 18, Kruse 13, Griffin 10, A.Bendlage 9, Mohrfeld 3, Myers 2, Denning 2
Blocks — Myers 4, Kruse 1.