Despite an early 6-4 lead in the first set, the Greyhounds didn’t look quite themselves after that in the set as Sleepy Eye quickly went ahead and took a 12-7 lead on a block from Jaelynn Schauman. Schauman had three kills and three blocks in the first set and carried that energy throughout the match as she kept her team fired up. She ended up leading her team with 10 kills, nine digs and four blocks.

The Greyhounds battled back to trail 22-18 late on a block by Ava Krueger, but a service error, a block from Schauman and a violation ended up giving Sleepy Eye the opening set.

“It was our execution,” Cathedral head coach Becky Wilfahrt said. “I counted at one point I think we had six missed serves in the first set, we had multiple hitting errors, multiple passing errors. We gave away a lot of points instead of ones they earned in a set that was a 7-point game, When you’re giving away 10, 12 points, that makes the difference.”

Sam Price added nine kills, eight digs, three aces and two blocks for Sleepy Eye, while Makayla Strong had five kills and Hannah Meyer had 13 set assists and two aces.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Abbey Hillesheim and Ava Krueger go up to try and block an attack by Sleepy Eye’s Makayla Strong during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match Thursday at Cathedral High School.

Shay Wilfahrt led her team on the night with 22 kills, eight digs and two blocks, while Margo Finstad had 18 set assists and four aces and Krueger had six kills and six aces. Abbey Hillesheim added nine assists and four aces, while Jayde Altermatt had four kills, three aces and eight digs.

The Greyhounds took a quick 5-1 lead in the second set with two quick kills and a block from Shay Wilfahrt. After a kill from Price, Price blocked Shay Wilfahrt at the net to have Sleepy Eye down 5-3. Shay Wilfahrt returned the favor by blocking Price for the next point and moments later the Greyhounds had a 12-5 lead after back-to-back aces by Hillesheim, forcing a Sleepy Eye timeout. Sleepy Eye went on an 8-0 run after that to lead 13-12, getting an ace during the run by Hannah Meyer to tie the set and a kill by Schauman to take the lead.

After tying the game up at 13-all, Finstad recorded a kill to put the Greyhounds back in front for good as the Greyhounds ended up with a 10-0 run to lead 22-13.

The Greyhounds got another 10-0 run in the third set, capped off on a pair of Shay Wilfahrt kills for a 19-8 lead. They finished the set and went up 2-1 in the match after a kill from Krueger.

Set 4 saw the Greyhounds in control early and leading 20-13 before Sleepy Eye came to life with a 5-0 run to trail 20-18. A block and kill by Schauman moments later tied the set at 23-all, but a kill from Shay Wilfahrt had the Greyhounds a point away from ending the night. A service error tied it up again before a kill from Altermatt and an ace from Krueger finished the match.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye’s Jaelynn Schauman (11) is surrounded by teammates after a kill of hers during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match Thursday at Cathedral High School.

“I told the girls, ‘Well, if you wouldn’t dig yourself a big hole, you wouldn’t have to play comeback all the time,'” Sleepy Eye head coach Sydney Geiger said. “And it’s always towards the end when we decide to play that comeback game, so there’s not much wiggle room for air. But we did it, we came back and I think we kind of caught them off guard by doing it because of how we were playing. That’s kind of the been the moral of our season. It’s been a roller coaster season.”

Coach Wilfahrt said she tried a new rotation during the match and was mostly pleased with how it worked but said there are still things to work on.

“It was a new rotation, so I was pleased with the second set and most of the third set, it looked like it was gelling, it looked like it was working,” coach Wilfahrt said. “We had some blocks early on and that was one of the things that we were trying to adjust. So there were a lot of positives that we need to build on.”

Cathedral (9-9, 5-1) is at Nicollet on Tuesday for a Tomahawk-Valley crossover match, while Sleepy Eye (3-11, 1-6) is at a tournament in Nicollet on Saturday.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye’s Hannah Meyer sets the ball during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match Thursday at Cathedral High School.