Lady Crusaders cruise to SEISC tourney title

WEST BURLINGTON — Holy Trinity gets a light week ahead.
The Crusaders deserve a little break.
They finished an 11-match week — more appropriately, an 11-win week — by sweeping all three of their matches Saturday night to win the Southeast Iowa Super Conference volleyball title.
“This definitely means a lot,” said outside hitter Olivia Bendlage after the Crusaders’ 25-20, 25-12 win over West Burlington in the tournament’s championship match at Loren Walker Arena. “Having a big week this week and then coming out on top definitely feels good.”
The third-ranked (Class 1A) Crusaders (19-3), who are on a 14-match winning streak, won the HTC Classic title on Monday, swept Central Lee at home on Tuesday, won three matches in the Super Conference tournament pool play, then kept winning on Saturday. They defeated Columbus 25-10, 25-10 in the quarterfinals, beat Mediapolis 25-9, 25-17 in the semifinals, then after a close first set against the Falcons dominated in the second set, surging to a 13-3 lead and keeping control the rest of the way.
“I thought we played well all day,” Holy Trinity coach Melissa Freesmeier said. “We’re playing good volleyball right now, we did that all week, and then we came in here and did the same thing.”
Holy Trinity’s calendar every volleyball season always has the same challenges, and this has always been the late-September gauntlet.
“It was fun,” Bendlage said, smiling. “I was like, ‘When is this week going to end?’ But it was awesome how we played throughout the week.”
Senior Adalyn Kruse was consistently attacking through Saturday’s matches — she led the Crusaders with 40 kills, three coming in that 10-0 stretch in the second set against West Burlington.
Holy Trinity’s front line has varying levels of experience — Kruse is a senior, Bendlage is a junior, Makayla Simpson is a sophomore, and Kymber Jones and Kate Pieper are freshmen. They combined for 91 kills on the day, with senior Elizabeth Griffin delivering 78 assists.
Holy Trinity’s defense also came up with 123 digs.

The Crusaders’ lone match this week is at home against Notre Dame on Thursday. That is going to allow some practice time that they have missed in the last week.
“There are still things we need to get better at,” Freesmeier said. “We want to keep going with how we’re playing, but we may try some different things this week, see what we can come up with.”
“We’ve just got to keep going, keep giving it 100 percent in practice, because that’s how we can get better,” Bendlage said.
Now the calendar turns the page. The postseason is looming.
“It’s October now, so we have to be ready,” Freesmeier said.
HOLY TRINITY STATISTICS
Kills — Adalyn Kruse 40, Olivia Bendlage 18, Kymber Jones 13, Kate Pieper 11, Makayla Simpson 9, Elizabeth Griffin 3.
Serving — Bendlage 42-43 (4 aces), Elizabeth Griffin 34-35 (3), Layne Schmitt 23-24 (4), Pieper 18-19, Brynn Denning 14-14, Kruse 10-13, Jones 6-6 (2), Brooklyn Scheetz 1-1.
Digs — Denning 38, Bendlage 24, Griffin 28, Kruse 12, Scheetz 11, Pieper 6, Jones 5, Simpson 3, Schmitt 2.
Assists — Griffin 78, Denning 5.
Blocks — Kruse 3, Griffin 2.