Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM — While New Ulm Cathedral held an early 2-0 lead over Minnesota Valley Lutheran on Tuesday night, the Chargers stormed back to win in five sets of Tomahawk Conference volleyball behind Mara Weisensel’s record-setting night.

The Chargers won 24-26, 24-26, 25-15, 25-19, 15-12.

Weisensel finished the night with 22 kills, 10 digs and 10 blocks. With the 22 kills, Weisensel set the school record for career kills, previously held by Heather Danell, who had 696.

Weisensel is now at 705 kills for her career. Her 10 blocks was also a single-match school record.

Weisensel couldn’t have asked for a much better way to set those records than with a key comeback win over the rival Greyhounds in conference action. When she picked up her 14th kill of the night with the first MVL point in the fourth set, her team erupted in cheers.

“It was the most amazing feeling all season because I knew I couldn’t have done it without my team,” Weisensel said. “Everybody cheering and everybody cheering for each other, it was just the most amazing experience.”

It was also Volley for a Cure night, where MVL, Cathedral and fans in attendance joined together to help raise money for the fight against cancer.

The first set was very competitive and neither team was able to gain much of an advantage until the Greyhounds went on a 6-0 run late to lead 24-20. The run featured two ace serves and a kill by Maggie Fliszar.

The Chargers fought back and tied it on a kill by Weisensel, but back-to-back errors led to Cathedral’s win in the opening set. The first set had 12 total ties.

MVL led 13-8 in the second set after a 6-1 run, but a late 4-0 run by Cathedral that got a kill and an ace serve by Sydnee Helget tied things at 17-all. The Chargers later tied it at 24-all before an ace serve by Megan Haala and a block by Helget put Cathedral ahead two sets to none.

The Chargers controlled most of the third set as the Greyhounds began to play more conservatively, with an 8-0 run by MVL leading to a 17-5 MVL lead. Weisensel had four kills during the run.

After winning the third set, MVL limited the Greyhounds in the fourth set to just three early leads (1-0, 2-1, 3-2). After that, the Greyhounds could only pull within 1 point of MVL once, 14-13. Multiple late Cathedral errors in that fourth set then led to a fifth set.

The Greyhounds led 7-3 early in the fifth set after an ace serve by Helget. The Chargers tied it at 7-7 and then 8-8 before Cathedral took a 10-8 lead after back-to-back kills by Lily Franta.

A 5-0 run, however, capped off on a block by Weisensel put the Chargers up 13-10. Cathedral got 2 points after the block but a Greyhounds error and a kill by Weisensel ended MVL’s comeback with a big win.

Emma Nelson also had 12 kills and 11 digs to help lead the Chargers, while Maddie Pearson had 39 set assists, eight digs and was in on four blocks. Abbie Riederer had five kills and 15 digs for MVL.

Helget led Cathedral with 16 kills and 3 1/2 blocks, while Haala had 13 kills. Also for Cathedral, Fliszar had 10 kills and five ace serves, while Emily Schommer had 33 set assists and Franta had five ace serves.

Sarah Mohr was out for Cathedral again and is expected to miss two weeks but return in time for playoffs. That certainly wasn’t what Cathedral head coach Becky Wilfahrt was hoping for, but she was still confident in her team’s chances to win on Tuesday.

She said that the biggest issue during the match was getting too comfortable late, something the Greyhounds will have to fix as the season rolls on.

“This is only our third conference game, but they just have to stay aggressive,” Wilfahrt said. “And when they get a lead, they have to go even harder, and they didn’t. We went the opposite way.”

For the Chargers, the win moved them to 4-0 in the conference and 11-4 overall this season, and Weisensel said that keeping up the hard work is key for the team from here out.

“I think we just need to keep working as hard as we have been this whole time,” Weisensel said. “We can’t let up at all, and [we need to] keep working as a team. It’s not about one or two people, it’s really about the whole team and we need to keep focusing on that.”

The loss bumped Cathedral to 9-9 overall and 1-2 in the conference.

Cathedral is at Sleepy Eye on Thursday, while MVL hosts Wabasso Thursday.