Wabasso’s Amanda Hoffman spikes the ball between Mallory Helget (10) and Ali Beltz (7) of Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Tuesday in Sleepy Eye. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

SLEEPY EYE — In what was a battle between two unbeaten teams in Tomahawk Conference play, Wabasso was too much for Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s to handle on Tuesday night.

The Rabbits (19-4, 5-0) swept the Knights (13-3, 4-1) 25-21, 25-16, 25-14.

Rabbits coach Barb Johnson said that although she thought the first set was a little rusty, she was proud of her team for coming back stronger to close out the match.

“The first game, we didn’t come out very strong,” Johnson said. “We haven’t played since last Monday, but we have to learn how to overcome that rustiness and just get out there and play well right away.

“Everybody contributed today in positive ways,” Johnson said. “I think St. Mary’s did a pretty good job of digging our hitters. They got a lot of digs up that a lot of other teams don’t. I just thought in general for our hitters to keep swinging away was just really good to see.”

Wabasso went up 8-4 in the first set after kills by McKenna Nelson and Maddy Guetter. Quality blocking by the Knights, however, gave them a 13-9 lead to force a Wabasso timeout.

Wabasso later tied it back up at 15-15 on a kill by Jenna Frank. The Rabbits then pulled out to 22-19 lead to force a Knights’ timeout after a spike and an ace by Guetter.

The Knights took 2 points back after the timeout, but couldn’t pull out the Set 1 win.

Wabasso came out strong in the second set with an early 11-4 lead to force a St. Mary’s timeout. The Rabbits continued to increase their lead and took an 18-8 lead after block kills by Frank and Guetter.

After a kill by Ali Beltz and a hitting error, the Knights trailed 23-16, but Wabasso took the next 2 points and won the set on a St. Mary’s hitting error.

Several St. Mary’s hitting errors in Set 3 gave Wabasso an early 11-3 lead after an 8-0 run. A Gina Goblirsch kill later gave Wabasso a 13-4 lead, but St. Mary’s went on a 5-0 run to trail 13-9 after a few Wabasso hitting errors.

Wabasso pulled away again, though, and closed the third set out on an ace by Amanda Hoffman, a kill by Guetter and a hitting error.

Despite the loss to a tough conference competitor, Knights coach Jen Walter remained positive about her teams play after the match.

“I’m really proud of how we battled that first game,” Walter said. “We knew that they had some exceptional hitters and I think what we kind of struggled in was our serve receive that game. We were digging the ball and doing other things well, but they’re a good team. You can’t take that away from them.”

Wabasso was led by Guetter, who had 22 digs, 18 kills and three blocks. Goblirsch added 10 kills for Wabasso, while Jenna Frank had 33 set assists and 21 digs.

Megan Rothmeier had 17 digs for the Rabbits also, while Amanda Hoffmann had five kills.

Ali Beltz led the Knights with five kills, nine digs and two blocks, while Jody Hansen had 10 set assists and eight digs. Sarah Reinarts added 10 digs for the Knights, while Kelsie Kosak added five digs.

Wabasso hosts New Ulm Cathedral at 7 p.m. on Thursday, while St. Mary’s hosts Springfield at 7 p.m. on Thursday.