Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm Cathedral’s Kristina Long spikes the ball past the block of Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Mara Weisensel (5) Tuesday at CHS. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral improved to 2-1 on the year after a 3-0 sweep of Minnesota Valley Lutheran (2-1) on Tuesday in nonconference volleyball action.

The Greyhounds won 25-19, 25-11, 25-21.

“I liked that our hitters were a lot more aggressive,” Greyhounds coach Becky Wilfahrt said. “We started a little slow in game one, but we really came around. Our serve receive passing was much better tonight, which allowed us to use a more balanced attack and several different hitters.

“I thought our serving was much more aggressive. We’ve been working on that to score some points off the serve and so I thought the girls did a better job with that tonight.”

Cathedral jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in the first set after a kill by Kristina Long, who finished the night with 12 kills and 2 1/2 blocks. The Chargers battled back and continued to trade points with the Greyhounds until they took a 15-11 lead, which forced a Greyhounds timeout.

Cathedral mounted a comeback and eventually took an 18-17 lead, which then forced MVL to use a timeout. A 7-2 Greyhounds run, capped off with a kill by Sarah Mohr, led to the final score in Set 1.

Mohr finished the night with 14 digs and three kills.

Cathedral got MVL off balance in Set 2, taking a 12-2 lead after a kill by Long. MVL took four points back, though, to cut the deficit to 12-6.

The Greyhounds then took a 10-point lead again, 16-6, highlighted with a spike by Becca Schwarz, who finished with six kills. Trailing, 23-8, the Chargers mounted a brief comeback to trail 24-11 after a kill by Abby Riesgraf, but the Greyhounds put things away without an issue.

Set 3 saw a much more back-and-forth matchup between the two squads, with a 10-10 tie early on. MVL grabbed a 16-13 lead, its largest lead of the set, which prompted Cathedral to use a timeout.

The Greyhounds went on a 6-1 run to lead 19-17 after a kill by Jenna Helget, who finished the night with 17 assists, 12 digs, and five kills. The Chargers took a timeout after in hopes of halting the run, but they were unable to swing things in their favor.

Rose Hazuka had 10 digs and six kills for the Greyhounds, while Kirsten Spaude had five aces and eight assists.

Haley Birkholz had 14 digs and seven kills for the Chargers, while Hannah Marzinske had 19 digs. Lauren Paulsen had nine digs with four kills also for the Chargers.

“We didn’t have an offense going — actually in the middle of the first set,” Chargers coach Sara Gieseke said. “I don’t know why we were so hesitant — but I thought we put up a really good block — we just couldn’t get the offense going.”

Cathedral plays at Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart at 7 p.m. Thursday for a Tomahawk Conference game, while MVL travels to Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s for a 7 p.m. Thursday Tomahawk Conference game.