Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm Cathedral’s Sarah Mohr spikes the ball during the Greyhounds’ match at Minnesota Valley Lutheran Thursday. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran avenged its Sept. 5 loss to New Ulm Cathedral, with a 3-1 victory in Tomahawk Conference volleyball action on Thursday.

The Chargers won 25-22, 18-25, 25-18, 25-23.

Cathedral (9-3, 1-2 Tomahawk) had won the previous three matchups between the two teams, with all of them being sweeps. MVL (5-6, 1-2) picked up its second win in a row after the victory, while Cathedral dropped its second straight game.

“The girls really came out strong,” MVL coach Sara Gieseke said. “We had an injury yesterday that took out one of our middle hitters, so the girls really stepped up. They played a few different positions then they’re used to and they just did a fabulous job talking out there and playing hard the entire match.”

MVL started Set 1 up 1-0 after an ace by Maddie Pearson. Cathedral then climbed out to an 8-5 lead after a kill by Becca Schwarz.

MVL then went on an 8-2 run after the Schwarz kill to lead 13-10. After back-to-back kills by Rose Hazuka and a kill by Jenna Helget, Cathedral tied things up at 13-13.

MVL led 22-21 after a Cathedral hitting error, but Cathedral tied things up right away on a tip by Schwarz. MVL stayed strong, though, and pulled out the win in Set 1.

Cathedral increased the attack in the second set and jumped out to an early 7-3 lead to force an MVL timeout. A Haley Birkholz kill broke up the Cathedral run out of the timeout to make the score 7-4.

The Chargers trailed until an ace block by Birkholz gave them a 16-15 lead. The Greyhounds responded well, however, closing things out on a 10-2 run to pick up the win in Set 2.

Set 3 started off with an early 8-2 Chargers’ lead and after a kill by Lauren Paulsen, Cathedral burned a timeout. Cathedral then trimmed the deficit to 3 and trailed 14-11, but MVL went on a 6-0 run after to make the score 20-11.

Cathedral continued to battle and went on a 5-point run to cut the deficit to 20-16. MVL was able to hold Cathedral off, though, and ended the set on a kill by Birkholz.

With Cathedral up 6-4 in Set 4, MVL took a 9-6 lead after a 5-0 run that was capped off on an Emma Nelson kill. Back-to-back kills by Hannah Marzinske gave MVL a 12-8 lead and forced a Cathedral timeout.

MVL went on a 5-1 run after the timeout to lead 17-9. Down 8 points, the Greyhounds mounted an impressive comeback to bring the deficit to 18-16.

An ace block by Paulsen stopped the Greyhounds’ run and put the Chargers up 19-16. Cathedral then tied things up at 21-21 and eventually took a 23-21 lead, but MVL fought back and benefited on a pair of Cathedral hitting errors to end the match.

Cathedral coach Becky Wilfahrt was disappointed with the multiple hitting errors her girls had during the game and felt that it was the key reason why her squad lost.

“29 of them [hitting errors],” Wilfahrt said. “I think that pretty much explains it. When you lose a game by 2 points and you lose another one by [3] points — then you have 29 hitting errors and five missed serves, you’re giving away 34 points. They didn’t beat us by 34 points tonight.”

Birkholz led the charge for MVL with 14 kills and 28 digs, while Paulsen added 14 kills and 4 blocks. Elizabeth Marzinkse had 31 digs, while Hannah Marzinske had 24 digs and six kills.

Also for MVL, Maddie Pearson had 26 set assists, 15 digs and four ace serves, while Mackenzie Helget had 11 set assists and eight digs. Nelson also added five kills.

Cathedral was led by Hazuka, who had 15 kills and 21 digs. Kristina Long added 14 kills for the Greyhounds, while Kirsten Spaude had 21 digs and Jenna Helget had 26 set assists.

MVL plays at Springfield at 7 p.m. Thursday for a conference matchup, while Cathedral plays Saturday in St. James for a tournament.