File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Shay Wilfahrt tips the ball during a Section 2A Volleyball Tournament match against Cleveland on Oct. 23 at Sibley East High School. Wilfahrt was named the 2025 All-Journal Volleyball Player of the Year on Wednesday.

NEW ULM — Having her mom as her head volleyball coach during her prep varsity career at New Ulm Cathedral, Shay Wilfahrt didn’t get special treatment or an instant spot in the starting rotation four years ago.

While she had the benefit of being able to ask for guidance at any point from her mom, Becky, the senior spiker also knew her mom would expect more from her and not go easy on her. Wilfahrt put her nose to the grind, however, worked into a starting role as a sophomore and continued to improve from there out, finishing with 1,067 kills for her career, second all-time in school history, and setting a single-season school record in kills this year with 469.

Wilfahrt’s improvements and standout senior season of volleyball also earned her the unanimous title of the 2025 All-Journal Volleyball Player of the Year, as voted on by The Journal’s sports staff.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Wilfahrt said of the honor. “[It’s] a little bit of a highlight of how everything went and whatnot. Our season wasn’t the greatest [15-14 record] and I know it didn’t go the way we wanted to all the time, but we still got something out of it, we still improved. … I think I also improved a lot and put the work in to earn that.”

Put the work in was an understatement for a player that got into the starting rotation as a sophomore in 2023 and picked up a solid 249 kills before adding 100 kills to that total during her junior year as she ended 2024 with 349 kills. This year, her 469 kills shattered the previous single-season school record of 399.

As for her consistently improving attack, Wilfahrt said it came with a lot of work.

“My mom and I got in the gym all the time,” Wilfahrt said. “It was just kind of staying consistent with working at it. I think the biggest thing was I changed my approach. I went from a three-step to a four-step and I finally got that down and we worked on going faster and faster, so having more momentum while I’m approaching and jumping.”

Even though Wilfahrt finished many of her attacks with a strong swing, she also learned to take a little off of it at times this season and better find the open spots on the floor to improve her hitting percentage, which was a team-high .245 this season.

“I think I watched a lot more film of myself and our opponents and just any other film, like higher-level people playing and everything,” Wilfahrt said. “It kind of helps your playing all-around and everything. Watching other people, it was just like getting an IQ for the game and learning those different shots, making it look like I’m going in hard and then just tip or dump it over or whatever. I think finding the open spots was a big thing that we focused on.”

In addition to her team-leading, record-setting 469 kills, Wilfahrt also led the team in digs (290) and blocks (42) while picking up 39 ace serves.

Wilfahrt has many fond memories from her volleyball career with the Greyhounds, and not just tied to the matches during the season. She said some of her best memories come from spending time with her teammates in the offseason in camps.

“You get a lot closer with every girl on the team and even the coaches,” Wilfahrt said. “There’s always inside jokes or funny stuff that happens.”

With her mom as her head coach, Wilfahrt didn’t expect or get anything handed to her. She did, however, gain many memories she will carry with her the rest of her life.

“It was definitely one of my favorite things,” Wilfahrt said of playing under her mom. “There’s definitely times where it’s really tough, to always hear I need to do better and whatever, kind of even after a good game, all the things I could have done better, but it’s definitely beneficial. I’m able to get in the gym with her all the time and she tells me everything I need to hear, not just what I want to hear.

“She was definitely a little bit harder on me than others most of the time just because she saw a lot in me, and it was really easy for her to connect with me. I mean, she could read me easily. She knew if I was getting a little upset or overwhelmed, she was able to kind of figure that out and then take care of that.”

While her mom got varsity coaching win No. 300 earlier in the season, Wilfahrt was able to make a bit of history on her own when she passed 1,000 career kills and set the single-season Cathedral kills mark during a three-set win at Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop in Winthrop on Oct. 7.

“It means a lot,” Wilfahrt said of joining the Cathedral record books. “It just goes back to all the people I’ve played with, all the people who’ve taught me over the years. It just kind of reminds me of my entire career, not just this season. Everyone this season obviously helped me get there, but in the past years as well, they’ve helped me grow and find a love for the sport more so.

“Everyone’s pushed me to be the best person I could be, to work harder and all that. All my teammates in the past years and all my coaches and mentors who have encouraged and inspired me.”