WARDSVILLE -- There's something to be said about an opposing team being significantly taller in volleyball, and California Julie Bailey knew that would be an issue when her team matched up with Helias Catholic in the Class 3, District 12 semifinals.
But the real issue that the Lady Pintos couldn't overcome was the Lady Crusaders' defense and ability to dig almost everything California sent their way. That helped Helias defeat California 2-0 (25-12, 25-8) Tuesday evening.
"They can turn everything into a hit," Bailey said. "They have great defense, nothing hits the floor. Then no matter where the ball is, they can turn it into a hit. A lot of their hits were from the back row, a lot of their sets were not even from their setter. When the setter is out, somebody steps up."
Helias raced out to an early 7-1 lead in the first game with help from Ellie Rockers and Hannah Borchelt's offensive attack. Borchelt had a share of a block with Suzie Kuensting and also recorded a kill and Rockers recorded back-to-back kills. One of Rockers' kills was when she reached up and tapped the ball into a hole of the Lady Pintos' defense.
"Putting it in the hole, knowing where to put it," Bailey said. "If you have that many girls on the front row that are three or four inches taller than your hands, it makes a difference, too."
Down 18-8, California's Cameron Meyer recorded three-straight kills to cut the Helias lead to 18-11, but the Lady Crusaders went on a 6-0 run and won seven of the last eight points to win the set 25-12.
After the 7-1 start to the game, Helias had nine more kills by four different players.
California started the second game in another early hole, this time down 10-3. During the run, Helias had three aces, and that's something Bailey said the Lady Pintos had problems with during the match. The Lady Crusaders totaled seven aces in the match, three in the first game and four in the second.
"The biggest problem I felt like wasn't even necessarily our defense, it was our serve-receive," Bailey said. "... we've passed well all year from our serve-receive. It wasn't that their serves were that much harder than anything we've faced. They did jump serve and put some top-spin on the ball, and if we could of gotten more passes to our setters and allowed Cameron, Adrienne (Strickfaden) and Ashtyn (Goans) to hit like they can, we just couldn't get the ball to them enough."
After the 10-3 start, a couple of errors and a Lady Crusaders' kill gave Helias the 14-3 advantage. Then Helias scored eight of the next nine points to take a commanding 22-5 lead.
California didn't give up, though. Chloe Schenewerk and Strickfaden recorded back-to-back kills, but the defending state champions Lady Crusaders were just too much in the end.
Meyer led the team with four kills and Strickfaden added three to lead the offensive attack for California.
The Lady Pintos end their season with a 19-11-4 record.