NEW ULM — Early season defensive deficiencies were exposed as New Ulm Cathedral lost to Cleveland 25-14, 25-19, 24-26, 25-14 on Thursday in a Tomahawk Valley Conference volleyball match at Cathedral High School.
“The biggest challenge was, we knew we had to get better at reading hitters and making adjustments defensively and especially blocking better in the front row,” Cathedral head coach Becky Wilfert said. “Offensively, I think the biggest thing is finding open space. We’re talking about playing smarter instead of playing hard all the time and trying to cut down on some of the unforced errors in our own half.”
In the season opener, Shay Wilfert led the Greyhounds with 22 kills, three blocks and 11 digs, while Ava Kruger had 11 kills, 13 digs and three ace serves. Madeline Harla had 33 set assists and two aces.
Cathedral and Cleveland battled hard early in the first set, with Cleveland leading 13-11 at the midpoint. Cleveland went on a quick 5-0 run to take the lead, but it was halted by a serving error. After a Cleveland kill and a Shay Wilfert kill, Cleveland went on another 5-1 run to take the set.
Cleveland started off weakly in Set 2, conceding four straight points on errors. Both teams scored points, with Shay Wilfert and Kruger scoring, but Cleveland took a timeout down 8-3.
Cleveland went on a quick 3-0 run out of a timeout, but a pair of aces from Harla during the run put Cathedral in their grasp. With the score at 15-10, Cleveland tied the game at 16-16 and then took the lead with a kill. Shay Wilfert had two more kills, but couldn’t stop Cleveland’s 13-3 run to end the match.
Set 3 started out much the same as set 2, with Shay Wilfahrt, Krueger and Jaylin Hartness all getting kills and Abbey Hillesheim having an ace as Cathedral took a 6-0 lead. Cathedral led 15-3 with Shay Wilfahrt and Krueger getting two kills apiece.
“I think we served a lot more aggressively than we were in the past,” Wilfert said. “We also talked about wanting to win points with ace serves and kills. In the third set, we served a lot more aggressively, which took them out of their system a lot and they were sending us a lot of free balls, which worked in our favor offensively.”
But Cleveland rallied and went on a 16-3 run to lead 19-18. Shay Wilfert stopped that run with a kill, then she and Olivia Maccio teamed up on a block to lead again at 20-19. Cleveland retook the lead, 23-21, but three kills by Shay Wilfert put Cathedral up 24-23. Then two points and a Cleveland error gave Cathedral the win.
The Greyhounds didn’t have the same luck in the fourth set, falling behind 5-0 early in the set. Cathedral fought back from a 12-9 deficit, with Hartness saving a point with a diving dig to end the match up 15-10, but Cleveland’s offense was too strong and the Clippers won 25-14.
Cathedral leaves for Madelia on Friday.
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