“We talked a lot about confidence and working together,” Cathedral’s Shay Wilfahrt said. “We couldn’t follow up an error with an error. We had to come back after one and forget about the last point.”

Wilfahrt led the team with 32 kills, four aces, three blocks and 13 digs. Cathedral had a lot of success serving the ball in the match, with the team racking up 16 aces across the five sets as a team.

“We started [focusing on serving] last year,” Wilfahrt said. “We said we wanted to get three aces every set, and our goal [this year] was to get four … We served pretty aggressive today.”

Also for the Greyhounds, Abbey Hillesheim had seven aces, 22 set assists and 12 digs, while Ava Krueger had 12 kills and 13 digs with three ace serves. Margo Finstad had 19 set assists, five digs and three blocks with three kills.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Madelia celebrates after a kill by Lauryn Grev (15) during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference Crossover volleyball match against New Ulm Cathedral Friday at Cathedral High School.

Makayla Sorenson led Madelia with eight kills and 20 digs, while Lauryn Grev had seven kills and 11 digs. Alicia Lugo had four aces and nine set assists, and Emmy Johnson had 15 digs.

Four of those ace serves came in the first set for Cathedral, including three by Abbey Hillesheim early on as the Greyhounds held a 6-5 lead. Madelia took the lead with a kill and a block from Makayla Sorenson, but a 4-0 run gave the lead back to the Greyhounds. Madelia called a timeout and came out with a point to cut the lead to 11-8, but Cathedral stormed ahead with a 5-1 run to go up 16-9, with Jayde Altermatt closing out the run with a kill.

Madelia got some momentum back with 3 unanswered points, including two aces by Lugo, but Cathedral maintained the lead for the rest of the set, with a kill by Wilfahrt ending the set with a 25-16 Cathedral victory.

The Greyhounds took an early lead again in the second set, but Madelia soon got up 8-5 thanks to a series of Cathedral errors. Cathedral battled back with four kills by Wilfahrt to take a 9-9 lead, and two aces by Wilfahrt helped push that lead out to 13-9 and force a Madelia timeout.

Madelia came out of the timeout battling, and a kill by Grev and another by Sorenson helped the Blackhawks take a 20-19 lead. The teams traded points as the set came down to the final point, but a push sent over the net by Lehman caught the Cathedral defense out of position and gave Madelia the 25-23 win.

The third set was dominated early by the Blackhawks as they went up 19-7. Cathedral went on a 8-1 run to cut the lead to 20-15, but Madelia stabilized and came out with a 25-20 win.

The fourth set was another close one, but Madelia taking an initial 5-0 lead before Cathedral cut it back to 8-7 thanks to four kills from Wilfahrt. The teams traded points for several serves, and a timeout by Madelia saw the score at 16-16.

The teams remained even at 19-19 with neither team being able to gain much of a lead. Madelia went up 21-20 on a block form Lauren Sill and 23-21 on an ace from Adrianne Missling, but Cathedral tied it up again after fending off several Madelia attacks in a long point, finally scoring on a Madelia error. Ashlyn Hillesheim came up with a clutch block to put Cathedral up 24-23, then Krueger got the final kill to give the Greyhounds the 25-23 win.

Cathedral carried that momentum into the final set, going up 7-2 after a diving Krueger got a dig and sent the ball over the net for a point. Madelia cut the lead to 10-7 thanks to a block from Lehman and an ace from Grace Tatro, then after a 4-0 run by Cathedral, responded with a 4-0 run of its own to keep the score at 14-11. However, one final kill from Wilfahrt ended the match with a Cathedral victory.

Wilfahrt said the team needs to keep working together to be more consistent during matches.

“I think just ball control and working together,” she said. “Working on it in practice.”

Cathedral (1-1) plays Martin County West on Tuesday in Trimont.

Madelia (0-1) hosts Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey on Tuesday night.