Crusaders Knock Off Avon Grove for a Trip to the MIL Championship

By Megan Steimer

ELKTON - After splitting the regular season match ups, there was no telling what outcome would take place when the second seed TriState Crusaders hosted the third seed Avon Grove Wolves in the Mid-Atlantic Independent League semifinals Thursday evening. Each team captured a win on the road during the regular season, taking the term home field advantage out of the equation. Consequently, Tri-State came away with a huge playoff win in front of the home crowd– defeating Avon Grove 18-25, 25-13, 25-16, 25-20 and sending them to the MIL Championship game.

It was a rocky start for the Crusaders in game one as the Wolves generated multiple service runs to strengthen their lead in the set. There were brief periods of momentum from Tri-State though, including a double block from seniors Hope Pfadt and Jules Harris and then again from Etta Harris and Baylie Thomas to bring Tri-State within five before falling 0-1 in the match. “We were struggling to gel and missing some hitters, so it put us in a little rut,” said Jules Harris, “After that, we finally came together.” Indeed, they did as Pfadt, Thomas, and Jules all recorded kills early in set two, including a monster kill at the net from Jules after an Avon Grove passing mistake found the ball directly over the net for the taking. Moments later, sister Etta crushed the ball out of the middle to put the Crusaders up 18-8, sending the crowd into a thunderous applaud and forcing Avon Grove to take a timeout. Senior Ashlyn Criddle’s versatility shined in the final moments of game two, knocking in a kill from the outside to put her team up 21-11 and again from the offside to win set two 25-13. “I think our mistakes got the best of us in game one, but I feel like we all recognized and understood that. We fixed it immediately and came back in game two” said Criddle. Tri-State established another strong start in set three, jumping out to massive 20-6 lead over the Wolves, only needing five more points to put game three away. Avon Grove would not go down so easily however, as the lingering memories of set one became a reality once again when the Wolves went on an eight-point service run to cut the lead from fourteen to six. However, the Harris sisters put an immediate stop to the growing momentum of their opponent as Etta knocked in a kill followed by an ace at the service line to put her team up 23-15 before older sister Jules recorded a kill from the outside enroute to a game three win to go up 2-1 on the Wolves. “We played some tough teams when we were in Tennessee, and I think that helped us tonight when we started to slip. We learned to get out of our own heads and go back to playing together” Jules noted, “This is the best we’ve played all year.” Thomas heated up in game four, recording a couple of kills and an ace to give the Crusaders a comfortable 16-8 lead but Avon Grove again pushed back, cutting the lead to just three and forcing Tri-State to call a time out. Tied up at nine- teen, the idea of a fifth set was looking more like a reality. Crusaders’ Savannah Henry stepped up to the service line and knocked in three crucial service points, including an ace to bring her team within two before Tri-State secured a 25-20 set four win and a trip back to the MIL Championship. “We knew what we were capable of” said Pfadt, “I’m just so grateful for this team, we wanted this win bad. Tonight, we gave it all we got.”

Etta Harris led the offense with a team high nine kills to go with her three aces followed by Jules Harris with eight kills. Baylie Thomas led the defense with 17 digs along with three aces and five kills while Ashlyn Criddle recorded seven kills. Katie Ekendorf dished out 11 assists and logged eight digs for the Crusaders. With the victory, Tri-State moves on to face a familiar county foe, the Tome Titans, in a much-anticipated rematch of the 2021 MIL Championship. While the Crusaders are the defending champs, Tome came away with 3-1 victories in both regular season match ups.