Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral’s Madelyn Haala (left) is presented with a volleyball by Cathedral head coach Becky Wilfahrt (right) to celebrate Haala’s 1,000th career set assist as teammates Ava Krueger (5) and Shay Wilfahrt (middle-right) look on during the first set of a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover volleyball match against Mankato Loyola on Monday.

NEW ULM — Early in the first set of a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover volleyball match between New Ulm Cathedral and Mankato Loyola on Monday, Cathedral’s Madelyn Haala set a ball to the left, giving Jaylin Hartness a chance to knock down a kill to put Cathedral up 10-8.

That assist gave Haala 1,000 for her career as the senior was mobbed by her teammates.

Haala entered the match just three set assists away from the milestone, so she didn’t have to wait long to celebrate.

“Coming into the game, I was definitely really excited about it,” Haala said. “I obviously knew I would get three set assists tonight. But it was really emotional, I almost started crying. Our team is like a second family.”

The achievement came along with a resounding victory for Cathedral, as the Greyhounds swept the Crusaders 25-18, 25-16, 25-18 to improve to 10-11 on the year. Haala said that the team was able to put some things together that had been missing earlier in the year.

“It definitely starts with our passing,” Haala said. “We’ve struggled with that before. But I think tonight was a lot better. And our blocking was a lot stronger than it has been. We’ve switched our rotation around, and I think it’s been working a lot with our blocking. Just so we can get more on the other side and make the other side work for their points.”

Cathedral has now won four of its last five, with three matches remaining in the regular season.

Shay Wilfahrt led the Greyhounds in the match with 14 kills, 13 digs and two blocks, while Hartness had seven kills. Abbey Hillesheim had 14 set assists, and Haala had 10 set assists.

After Haala’s 1,000th set assist in Set 1, Cathedral maintained a small lead before going on a 4-0 run, featuring a block and a kill by Wilfahrt, to go up 17-12. Kills by Hartness and Ava Krueger helped keep that advantage before the set was finished off by another kill by Wilfahrt to win 25-18.

Cathedral started off strong in Set 2, taking a 9-2 lead off of three kills by Wilfahrt. Loyola worked to cut the lead down to 16-12, but kills by Jayde Altermatt and Hartness helped extend it to 20-12. A 5-0 run finished out the set for Cathedral, with a spike by Hartness ending the game 25-16.

The Greyhounds had a similarly strong set in the third set, taking a 9-3 lead on a kill by Altermatt. Loyola took a timeout and steadied the ship, going on a 4-0 run. Cathedral retook control with a 11-2 run led by two aces from Hillesheim to go up 20-9, but Loyola continued to fight, going on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 22-18 and force a Cathedral timeout. The Greyhounds came out of the break with focus, with Wilfahrt taking all three kills to finish out the set and the match.

Cathedral hosts Gibbon-Fairfax Winthrop on Tuesday.