Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Megan Palmer (2) tries to get the ball past Sarah Mohr (1) and Becca Schwarz of New Ulm Cathedral Tuesday at CHS. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop downed New Ulm Cathedral 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 13-25, 15-13 on Tuesday in a Tomahawk Conference volleyball battle.

In the fifth and deciding set, the Thunderbirds were able to go on a 3-0 run for a 9-4 lead.

The Greyhounds took a timeout which helped them to shift the momentum. GFW responded by getting necessary points before Cathedral battled back to tie it at 13-apiece.

GFW got the final points it needed to secure a 15-13 win and it won the match. Both teams worked hard to keep things close by making key spikes and hits.

“Defensively, we didn’t serve very well and we had too many holes in our blocks,” Cathedral head coach Becky Wilfahrt said.

Wilfahrt expressed disappointment with the loss and she said that the contest could have gone either way.

“It was a marathon,” GFW coach Cari Panitzke said. “We knew it would be even, but I didn’t think we’d have to go five.”

She was pleased with the Thunderbirds’ defensive effort and it has been something it has been working on. Panitzke said the improvement showed in this match.

Things didn’t start out well for GFW with it losing the first set. There were three ties with neither team leading by more than six points.

GFW was able to claim the second set and the theme of things being close continued. There were five ties in the second set.

Both teams battled to keep things close in the third set with there being just three ties. GFW was able to capitalize on a few Greyhound errors to win it.

The Greyhounds appeared to have grabbed the momentum in the fourth set. Cathedral came up with a combination of key serves, blocks and hits. It was the only set in which one team led by a comfortable margin.

GFW’s Katelynn Firle had 18 kills and 17 digs. Megan Palmer added 16 kills with 24 digs and Jordan Rettig had 43 set assists. Miah Busse added 17 digs. Maddy Elder had nine kills.

Haley Schwecke had four solo blocks and Emily Heinkes had seven kills.

Jenna Helget led Cathedral with 40 set assists. Rose Hazuka had 20 kills and19 digs. Kristina Long had 16 kills and Karlie Gieseke had 16 digs.

GFW (8-10, 3-2) will travel to Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (6-11,0-4) on Thursday. Cathedral (11-9, 2-4) will play at Wabasso (10-4, 4-0) on Thursday.