“It means a great deal for our team,” BLHS head coach Aaron Hubin said. “Because this was one of the first goals we ever set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. So to get through and accomplish other goals we had, this was a big one. So I’m really proud of the girls.”

While the match was perhaps closer than the score showed, Cathedral needed more to overcome the fourth-ranked Class A team in the state.

“They just don’t make a lot of unforced errors,” Cathedral head coach Becky Wilfahrt said. “We played them much tougher earlier in the season because we got our offense going and we were able to serve aggressively and get them out of system, and we didn’t do that tonight.

“They don’t miss a lot of serves, they don’t have a lot of hitting errors, so you really have to play good volleyball and earn your own points instead of waiting for them to give points to you.”

Photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral’s Ava Krueger (5) looks for room to hit against Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart’s Lily Hubin (5) during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match at Cathedral High School Thursday.

Lauren Hubin led the Mustangs 13 kills, 12 digs and three aces, while Lily Hubin had 11 kills, nine digs, five aces and 17 set assists. Chloe Schultz had seven kills and two blocks, while EB Ovitt had three kills, four digs and 14 set assists. Kelsey Ulrich added 20 digs and five aces.

Shay Wilfahrt led the Greyhounds with 13 kills and 10 digs, while Ava Krueger had four kills, an ace and four digs. Margo Finstad had four kills, 10 set assists, an ace and eight digs, and Abbey Hillesheim had nine set assists, 10 digs, and ace and a block.

BLHS started off the first set with a 4-1 lead thanks to a pair of aces by Lily Hubin. Cathedral battled with a trio of kills by Shay Wilfahrt to cut the lead to 6-4, but the Mustangs went on a 4-0 run, with two kills by Lily Hubin and a kill from Schultz to make it a 10-4 game. Cathedral called a timeout as BLHS extended the lead to 13-6, but the Mustangs kept rolling with five unanswered points to go up 18-6 and force another timeout. Cathedral traded points with BLHS as Krueger had two kills down the stretch, but kills by Callie Hable and Lauren Hubin helped seal the 25-12 win.

The Mustangs started Set 2 with five unanswered points as Lily Hubin collected two more aces. Cathedral cut the lead to 5-2 on kills by Shay Wilfahrt and Ashlyn Hillesheim, and the teams went back and forth for a few points. Cathedral called a timeout down 11-5 as Ulrich hit an ace, and the Greyhounds battled back to a 16-14 deficit as Shay Wilfahrt had four kills. However, BLHS stabilized, going on a 9-2 run to close out the game, with Lauren Hubin earning two kills and Ulrich collecting another ace.

The Greyhounds got the first point of the third set on a kill by Shay Wilfahrt, and the teams battled evenly for several points. Finstad had a block and Ashlyn Hilleshiem had an ace to put the Greyhounds up 5-4, but kills by Lauren Hubin and Ovitt gave a 9-7 lead back to the Mustangs. However, Cathedral rattled off 3 points on a kill by Shay Wilfahrt and two aces from Jayde Altermatt to take a 10-9 lead and force a BLHS timeout.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart’s Lauren Hubin (7) attempts to hit past New Ulm Cathedral’s Ashlyn Hillesheim (2) and Ava Krueger (5) during a Tomahawk Division volleyball match at Cathedral High School Thursday.

The Mustangs came out of the timeout strong, going on a 5-2 run led by two aces by Hable to take a 14-12 lead. From there, BLHS scored the final 10 points of the game to win 25-14.

BLHS heads into the Tomahawk-Valley Conference Championship game against Cleveland with a 24-1 record, 8-0 in conference, and from there it enters the Section 2A Volleyball Tournament.

“We need to get our offense, every hitter involved early in the match,” coach Hubin said. “To get people used to the pace of the game and get everybody involved so we can use all of our attacks to keep other teams defenses off balance.”

Cathedral, meanwhile, preps for the playoffs after a 14-13 regular season, 6-2 in conference play.

“[We’ve got to] take care of stuff on our side of the net and don’t make unforced errors,” coach Wilfahrt said.