Morgan Mathiowetz led the Knights’ attack with 18 kills, while Josie Helget captained it with 32 set assists. Reese Hoffmann added five kills for the Knights, while Ella Pollard had 18 set assists and three aces, Brynne Ibberson had eight digs, and Audra Hoffmann and Kailey Nelson each had two blocks.

While the Knights didn’t rack up ace serves during the match, their serve game was consistent enough to gain an advantage on the Greyhounds and set the tone.

“I think our strong serves were really big,” Knights head coach Karri Hoffmann said. “We were able to get them out of system with their passes, which then made it harder for them to hit. We know that they’ve had great hitters, so that was one way that if we could mess up where they had to get the pass to, they wouldn’t get a good set to hit. So that was our goal going into this, it was really to try to serve hard and make them work for every point.”

The Knights were without starting libero Natalie Fischer due to illness, but Kylie Pelzel stepped in and was consistent with her serve receive throughout the night. She even got involved on the offense with an early kill in the third set.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Josie Helget (6) congratulates Audra Hoffmann after a block during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match against New Ulm Cathedral on Thursday night at St. Mary’s High School. Also pictured is Ella Pollard, far left, and Morgan Mathiowetz, far right.

The Greyhounds were led by Shay Wilfahrt’s eight kills, while Ava Krueger had seven kills and two aces, Abbey Hillesheim had nine set assists, Margo Finstad had five set assists and Ashlyn Hillesheim had nine digs and three aces.

The Greyhounds had a bit of an uphill battle in the opening set to deal with as their leading attacker Wilfahrt went down with an ankle injury. After she capped off a 3-0 Cathedral run with a big kill to tie the game at 11-all, Wilfahrt was injured the next point as an error put the Knights up 12-11. Wilfahrt was helped off the court and began to ice her ankle, but the pressure was on her teammates to pick up the attack in her absence.

“It was just people under the net, I landed on their foot and fell over,” Wilfahrt said. “Same thing happened last year to me in practice. Same foot and everything, course.”

After Wilfahrt left the court, the Knights scored the next 7 points to lead 19-12. The Greyhounds didn’t give in, however, rallying back to trail 22-18 after a kill from Krueger, and cutting the deficit to 24-22 following another Krueger kill and a St. Mary’s violation. The Knights got the final point of the first set on an attack error, though, to go up 1-0 in the match.

Wilfahrt returned with a little adrenaline in the second set, getting the first kill of the set, which was followed with a St. Mary’s error and an ace from Krueger for a quick 3-0 lead. But Mathiowetz, who also finished the night with 15 digs, got two quick kills and the Knights added another point on an error to tie the set at 3-3. Midway through the set, things began to unravel for Cathedral and the Knights were happy to take advantage as they went on a 9-0 run that ended on an ace serve from Pollard to get a point away from ending the set. A few errors got the Greyhounds the next 3 points, but Mathiowetz added another kill to her total to put her team up two sets to none.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral libero Sophia Netzke bumps the ball during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match against Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Thursday at St. Mary’s High School.

The third set wasn’t any kinder to the Greyhounds as the Knights got a 10-0 run to lead 14-5, the run ending with another Pollard ace. Moments later the Knights took a 12-point lead, 18-6. A service error by the Knights and a block by Ashlyn Hillesheim cut the deficit to 19-9, and three consecutive aces by her has the Greyhounds down 21-14 to force a Knights timeout.

The Greyhounds cut their deficit to 22-17 late, but an error, a Mathiowetz kill and a tip over the net by Helget finished the match.

Wilfahrt said she thought St. Mary’s took advantage of Cathedral’s defense and said she and her teammates know they can play better than what they showed against the Knights.

“I think it was just they took advantage of our block not being there, our defense wasn’t fully ready,” Wilfahrt said. “We weren’t in the right spots when we were supposed to be. We weren’t going all out. I think we could have played a lot harder. We all know that we’re a better team than that.”

The Greyhounds, now 6-6 overall and 3-1 in the Tomahawk, are scheduled for tournament action on Saturday in St. James, but Wilfahrt said the trainer at St. Mary’s told her he expects her to be fine but to ice the ankle and wrap it Friday.

“[The trainer] was basically saying I was good to come in tonight, he just wants me to keep icing it, wrap it for tomorrow,” WIlfahrt said. “He said it’s obviously gonna be sore tomorrow, but Scott [Mangen] is gonna look at it, our athletic trainer.”

As for the Knights, who already played and fell in five sets to the Tomahawk-leading, undefeated Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart Mustangs in their first Tomahawk match of the season, coach Hoffmann said she thinks her team is in a good spot in a tough conference as they now sit 10-3 overall and 4-1 in the Tomahawk.

“It’s always hard because every game in our conference, I know it’s going to be a touch match going in,” she said. “We’re senior-heavy, so these girls have played together a lot and I think that shows on the court that we have that camaraderie. I think that’s one of our biggest strong suits is that we have that.”