Abbey Hillesheim’s match-ending ace serve in the fourth helped the Greyhounds take down the unbeaten Cedar Mountain Cougars 23-25, 25-14, 25-21, 25-23 in a Tomahawk Division volleyball match at Cathedral High School.

After dropping the opening set thanks to a rally by the Cougars (5-1, 1-1), the Greyhounds (5-5, 2-0) needed to clean things up and get their momentum back. After a dominant second-set victory, the Greyhounds and Cougars played like two teams in a section finals matchup for the third and fourth sets.

While Shay Wilfahrt’s attack was needed in Cathedral’s win as she finished with a match-high 29 kills, her defense was equally crucial as she finished with 23 digs and a pair of blocks. That’s not to take away from the rest of the team’s defense, which saw players sprawling and diving to keep the ball alive.

In addition to her match-ending ace, Abbey Hillesheim had three aces total to go with 27 digs and 23 set assists. Ava Krueger added 14 kills, 17 digs and three aces for the Greyhounds, while Ashlyn Hillesheim had 17 digs and three blocks and Margo Finstad had 18 set assists, 22 digs and three aces.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Cedar Mountain libero Brynn Hoffbeck bumps the ball during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match against New Ulm Cathedral on Tuesday night.

Going after the ball on defense and keeping every opportunity to get a point in play has been something Greyhounds head coach Becky Wilfahrt said the team has been working on.

“That’s something we’ve really been pushing because that’s been an issue in some of our games, so we’ve been practicing that a lot,” coach Wilfahrt said. “Our block still needs to get better, but we just talked about, ‘Just get the ball up, just contest everything.’ You have to have that mentality on defense that anything in my area, I’m going to get, so I was really pleased with how well they played defense tonight.”

The Cougars were led by Kendra Erickson’s 17 kills, eight assists and 14 digs, while Reagyn Kleinschmidt had eight kills and 11 assists. Libero Brynn Hoffbeck and Aubrey Steffl each had 15 digs.

Despite it being early in the season, the loss stung for the Cougars as it was their first of the season and first in Tomahawk play. Cougars head coach Beth Hill said her team had an off night and credited Cathedral for its play.

“Unfortunately tonight it was just a very off night for us,” Hill said. “We could not get in system and [Cathedral] played very well, I think they outworked us tonight.”

While the Greyhounds started to break open the first set midway through it, taking an 18-12 lead after an 8-1 run, the Cougars bit back with a 7-1 run to tie it up at 19-all. Cathedral took the lead back on a 3-0 run moments later to lead 23-20, but the Cougars ended the set on a 5-0 run, getting a kill and block from Erickson during the run.

Shay Wilfahrt had three early kills in the second set to get the Greyhounds some early momentum back, and a 4-0 run had the Greyhounds up 11-6 moments later. Cedar Mountain tried to hang around in the middle of the set, but an 8-1 run by the Greyhounds that saw four kills from Shay Wilfahrt, and a kill from Krueger put the Greyhounds a point away from the win. Steffl got a late kill to make it 24-14, but a net violation by the Cougars tied the match up.

The third set saw the Cougars take over midway through after a 4-0 run had them up 18-13, but a timeout by coach Wilfahrt saw Shay Wilfahrt pick up two quick kills on a 3-0 run to have the Greyhounds within 2, 18-16. Moments later, Krueger got her turn to shine with back-to-back kills to tie the match at 19-all.

A 6-2 run by the Greyhounds that included an ace from Finstad ended the set, the set-ender coming on a Cougars service error.

The Greyhounds pulled away in the fourth set early on, taking a 17-9 lead after a 5-0 run. The Cougars hung in and had a 6-1 run to trail 18-15 and force a Greyhounds timeout, with Kleinschmidt recording a kill and an ace during the run and Kendra Lueck picking up a block.

Cedar Mountain ended up tying it twice late, once on a Cathedral centerline violation to make it 22-all and again at 23-all on a kill from Kleinschmidt, but a Cedar Mountain service error ended up leading to an ace serve from Abbey Hillesheim to secure the win for Cathedral.

Hill said despite being 5-0 heading into the match with Cathedral, Hill said she wants to see the team’s consistency improve going forward.

“I think our biggest problem with this year has just been our consistency, which showed today,” Hill said. “But otherwise the girls have been doing a great job of playing very balanced offense and we play scrappy defense on most nights. Tonight was just not our night.”

Despite some of those inconsistencies by the Cougars, they didn’t make it easy for Cathedral on Tuesday night, something coach Wilfahrt expected.

“Beth is a very good coach and you kind of get to learn over the years some of the things she likes to do,” coach Wilfahrt said. “Her players are well-coached, they’re always going to be really scrappy, she’s got good setters and she always has a couple of really strong hitters. They like to do a lot of off-speed, so we were kind of prepared for that. They take you out of your system if you don’t transition well. Her players just read the floor well. She just does a very nice job with them.”

Cathedral is at Lester Prairie for a Tomahawk matchup at 7 p.m. Thursday night, while Cedar Mountain is at Tri-City United for a weekend tournament beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday.