Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm Cathedral’s Josie Pautzke (16) tries to block a spike from Cedar Mountain’s Megan Sangren (5) Thursday at CHS.

NEW ULM — Cedar Mountain was looking for its first win of the season on Thursday night in Tomahawk Conference volleyball action at New Ulm Cathedral. The Greyhounds (8-3, 2-0) weren’t about to let that win happen on their home floor, though, picking up the sweep 26-24, 25-19, 25-20.

The Cougars (0-8, 0-2) played well despite the sweep, being a thorn in the paw of the Greyhounds all night.

Cedar Mountain head coach Beth Hill said that she saw good volleyball all-around and improvement from her squad.

“We have an entirely new varsity team, no experience, so we are learning every step of the way,” Hill said. “This is another huge step in the right direction. The girls are working really hard and are making the improvements I’m asking them to make. As the night went on, we started finding more openings. It was a good game.”

The Greyhounds found themselves behind in the first set after a 6-0 run gave the Cougars an 18-14 lead. The Greyhounds battled back to tie it at 20-20 after a tip over the net by Mary Herzog, who had 10 kills on the night.

Sarah Mohr got the Greyhounds a kill at the net for the match point in Set 1.

The Greyhounds needed to rebound from their previous sweep defeat at the hands of Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s this past Tuesday at home. Mohr played a big role in the rebound, leading the Greyhounds with 14 kills on the night.

“This win was very big,” Mohr said. “We knew that our defense needed to be cleaned up and it was tremendously. Girls were picking up tips that we didn’t in other games and we were flying on the floor. With good defense, we could get good setups and we could attack more.”

The Greyhounds, leading 11-6 in Set 2, watched the pesky Cougars battle back to take a 14-12 lead. The lead was brief, however, as Cathedral began piling on kills by Mohr and picked up the win after a 5-0 run closed things out.

The Greyhounds again found the Cougars unwilling to give in easy as Cedar Mountain battled back from an 11-4 deficit to lead 14-13 after a block by Nadia Meyers. The Greyhounds fended off Cedar Mountain again, though, ending the match after a trio of kills by Herzog and an ace by Mohr.

Maggie Fliszar added eight kills and 21 digs for the Greyhounds, while Karlie Gieseke had 28 set assists. Lily Franta had 20 digs for Cathedral.

Emma Schouvieller had 18 set assists, six kills and seven digs for the Cougars, while Trista Smith had 24 set assists, three blocks and two kills. Meyers had five kills and 16 digs, while Megan Sandgren had 26 digs, seven kills and five aces and Natalie Lux had 19 digs and four kills. Megan Trebesch had 13 digs for the Cougars.

Cedar Mountain hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Thursday, while the Greyhounds are at Sleepy Eye on Tuesday.