That dig marked the 1,000th career dig for Steffl. While it marked the completion of a career goal for the junior outside hitter, she was more happy about the 25-8, 25-10, 25-9 win the team came away with on the day.

“Right away, I just wanted to make sure we destroyed,” Steffl said. “That’s our mentality. We’ve been going up and down the past three games, so this game I was like, ‘We need to go.’ When I got it, I was like, it’s just another whatever, but it’s also a great milestone to hit. That’s always been my dream. One of my dreams has been my 1,000th career point in basketball and my 1,000th dig for volleyball. So it’s awesome that I got it and awesome that we got it basically together.”

Steffl’s milestone came just a few days after one by teammate Kendra Erickson, who marked her 1,000th career set assists during a tournament on Saturday at Tri-City United.

Steffl said earning the career milestones so close together made it that much sweeter to celebrate.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Cedar Mountain’s Aubrey Steffl (facing camera) celebrates with teammate Reagyn Kleinschmidt (16) after earning her 1,000th career dig during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match against Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop at GFW High School.

“It was awesome,” Steffl said. “We’re in the same grade, so we grow up together and we have worked this hard to do this together. We lean on each other’s back, so it’s awesome that we did this together.”

Erickson agreed, saying it was payoff for the hard work they have put into volleyball.

“I think that we deserve it so much,” she said. “Because we both started varsity since we were freshmen, she started in eighth grade. So I feel like we both deserved it and worked hard for it.”

For Erickson’s part, she was taken a bit by surprise by the moment when she got her 1,000th career set assist.

“I was surprised that I got it, but I knew what I was at,” Erickson said. “But then I was emotional about it, because so many people cared about it for me.”

In the win over GFW, Reagyn Kleinschmidt had 15 kills and 13 set assists, while Erickson had 12 kills, 12 set assists and seven digs. Steffl had eight kills and five digs, while Brynn Hoffbeck had 13 digs.

For the Firebirds, Ella Nachreiner had five kills and two blocks, while Kora Schwarzrock had three kills. Chloe Heinrichs and Kinley Bruns each had seven digs, and Natalie Ahlbrecht had six set assists.

Cedar Mountain (8-3, 2-1) travels to division-leading Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Thursday, while GFW (0-6, 0-4) plays at Lester Prairie on Thursday.