It was the second match of the year for Cathedral after falling on the road to Cleveland the night before, while it was Madelia’s first match.

This Monday, however, will be the last volleyball match of the season for either Cathedral or Madelia as the No. 7 Greyhounds host the No. 10 Blackhawks at 7 p.m. in the first round of the Section 2A Volleyball Tournament.

A lot of things have changed since match No. 1 for both teams, but that opening match at Cathedral High School ended up going five sets as the Greyhounds trailed 2-1 before taking the final two sets.

The Blackhawks have been sneaky good in many ways this season as they have flown under the radar with a 12-17 record. While they have just two wins in 11 matches with teams seeded higher than them in the 2A playoffs — defeating No. 9 Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther and No. 8 Mankato Loyola — they have competed with several good teams and shown an ability to hold their own.

File photo by Ari Selvey Madelia’s Kellie Koberoski (20) tips the ball past New Ulm Cathedral’s Shay Wilfahrt 99) and Abbey Hillesheim (3) during a nonconference volleyball match on Aug. 18 at Cathedral High School.

“I think it’s our mentality,” Madelia head coach Melodie DeVlaeminck said of her team’s competitiveness. “Coming from Madelia, you go to games and stuff and they think, ‘Oh, it’s just Madelia.’ One time at a tournament, I think it was an MVL player that was like, ‘OMG, Madelia’s beating St. Mary’s right now.’ So I think its just always having that little chip on our shoulder.”

The Greyhounds have a chance to fly under the radar in the playoffs also with a 14-13 record. Many of their losses have come to bigger programs, seven to be exact as they have lost to six Class AA schools and one Class AAAA school, Shakopee.

They’ve also beaten some bigger schools, though, such as Class AA Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, Class AA Fairmont and Class AAA DeLaSalle.

“We’ve had some really strong games and this year we really tried to put together a tougher schedule by playing some 3A, 4A schools and things like that in hopes that it would get us prepared for playoffs — playing those bigger schools with better blocks and faster offenses,” Greyhounds head coach Becky Wilfahrt said. “That was kind of our hope. And we knew that might affect our record a little bit as well.”

During their home opener, the Greyhounds had to play catchup when falling behind two sets to one. Coach Wilfahrt said Madelia’s off-speed approach worked well in the match and is a common thing she’s noticed from the Blackhawks.

“Some of the things that I noticed when we saw them and just some of the film I’ve watched on them, they do some off-speed stuff, which mixes it up a little bit,” coach Wilfahrt said. “[Makayla] Sorenson is a strong hitter for them, they’ve got some aggressive servers that I think get you out of system and the same thing with their off-speed, so they take advantage of some of those things, just trying to get you out of system.”

Madelia has been without one of their starting setters in senior Alicia Lugo due to a season-ending injury obtained late in the season. Grace Tatro has taken over one of the team’s setter positions in place of Lugo.

“We’ve just been really working on it,” DeVlaeminck said of the change. “We work hard in practice and it’s not always the best, but it’s been working for us and hopefully something New Ulm [Cathedral] hasn’t seen from us yet, so we’re hoping to throw them off a little bit with that bit of a change.”

While coach Wilfahrt is aware of Lugo’s injury, she said the change shouldn’t throw her players off too much and that her team has gone through some changes also since the first meeting of the season.

“It’s tough for any team when you switch setters just because you have that connection with your setter,” coach Wilfahrt said. “Regardless of how good the new setter is, it’s just a comfort-level thing. We don’t take a look at that and think anything of, ‘Oh, well, they’re short a player,’ because it’s playoffs for everybody and everybody comes ready to play.

“I know they’ve changed up some things since we played them due to injuries and other things, but our lineup is quite different from the first time we played them as well. At this time of the season, you kind of expect that.”

Madelia plans to focus on containing Cathedral’s single-season kills record holder Shay Wilfahrt.

“We’re going to have to close our blocks on No. 9,” DeVlaeminck said. “Watching film, Shay is their go-to person, so if we can get a couple blocks or touches and try to throw them off their main hitter and then be aggressive on our offense so they can’t get something set up, I think that’s what’s going to keep us in the game with them.”

Containing Shay Wilfahrt, however, has shown to be easier said than done for many teams as she leads the Greyhounds this year with her growing record of 433 kills. She also leads the team in digs (261) and total blocks (39).

Coach Wilfahrt said Shay’s gotten used to teams trying to block her attacks and has made it a non-factor during the second half of the season.

“[Shay’s] been able to hit fairly competitively against every team we’ve played,” coach Wilfahrt said. “The nice thing is we’ve had some other hitters that have come on and built a little bit more confidence as the season has gone on. We’ve been practicing a lot with that, so I think that’s going to be helpful for us just to diversify that a little bit and get them some one-one-ones because Shay, a lot of times, is going to pull that block, and so if somebody else can have a one-on-one against their defense, that’ll work well.”

Some of those other hitters who could play more of an impact for the Greyhounds in Monday’s rematch include senior Ava Krueger, who has 211 kills on the season and 243 digs. Setter Margo Finstad has also increased her attack as of late for the Greyhounds with 60 kills while dishing out 322 set assists. Setter Abbey Hillesheim adds 285 assists and 185 digs and is tied with Krueger for the team’s top spot in ace serves with 50 as the team has served at an 89.9% clip this season.

Ashlyn Hillesheim adds 232 digs and 21 blocks to aid the Greyhounds’ defense, while Jayde Altermatt has 18 blocks.

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks have had a fairly balanced attack with three players over 100 kills on the season. Makayla Sorenson leads the way with 154 kills, while Tatro adds 117 and Lauryn Grev has 105. Carissa Sorenson has also been in on the attack with 93 kills.

Setter Adrianne Missling has been one of the top servers for Madelia with a team-high 45 aces to go with 184 set assists, while Makayla Sorenson adds 39 aces and Lugo and Grev each have 36. The team has a serving percentage of 91.3% for the season.

Makayla Sorenson also has 303 digs, while Emmy Johnson adds 299 digs, Grev has 227 and Tatro has 197.