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NUHS stays unbeaten in Big South

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Emmy Munson (10) spikes the ball past Heidi Hermann (11) of Blue Earth Area Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — In just her second season as the New Ulm volleyball coach, Stef Dietz wanted to see continued improvement with the program at all levels.

On Tuesday, the Eagles showed that they have improved quite a bit from a year ago, staying unbeaten in the Big South Conference with a 25-16, 25-8, 25-19 win against winless Blue Earth Area at New Ulm High School.

The Eagles (8-5, 7-0) spread the ball around and had a balanced attack on Tuesday.

“We moved the ball around, that was our goal tonight, to get it to all of our hitters and we did a good job,” Dietz said. “We got a little comfortable at times and we kept at it. I give Blue Earth credit, they were really digging up a lot of stuff. We really needed to really work to find that open spot.”

The Eagles trailed 7-5 in the first set before getting the offensive attack going. An ace serve by Talya Hoel tied it a 7-7 and later, they jumped out to a 12-9 lead after a BEA hitting error. The Eagles were on the attack at tha point, finishing with a 25-16 first-set win.

There was little doubt as to who was going to win the second set. New Ulm took an early 6-1 lead after a kill by Ally Steffensmeier. The Eagles then led 15-6 on a kill from Hoel and Nora Windschill slammed one home to make it 20-7. New Ulm got back-to-back service aces from Windschill to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

“It was really good to see, that first set and second set we kept the momentum on our side,” Dietz said. “We were really playing confident and we were really moving the ball around, running that quick game that we can. Not just hitting wise, but passing. Our passing was on tonight so I have to give our libero Caitlyn [Todesco] and our DS Nicole [Albrecht] a lot of credit for the passing that they did, it was on when we needed it to be.”

The third set saw a back-and-forth battle as neither team was able to get on any type of a roll. But that changed late.

Trailing 18-17, the Eagles put together a 6-0 run to grab a 23-17 lead and they held on for the sweep.

Dietz was impressed by the way her team took over late in that third set.

“I think that is key, with us seeing growth in the program, that we are able to regroup and come back out and come up with the win,” Dietz said. “Back-and-forth, they were doing some things that they needed to do and we had some hits that went out in that third set, but it’s good to see them just stick with it and keep plugging away and get that win.”

Windschill finished the match with 11 kills, an ace serve and 13 digs. Emmy Munson had seven kills, Hoel had six kills, 18 set assists, three aces and 10 digs and Nicole Albrecht finished with 11 digs. Natalie Yackley had seven kills, 19 set assists and four aces and Caitlyn Todesco finished the match with eight digs.

Steffensmeier finished the match with six kills and eight digs and Riley Melby had two kills on the night.

New Ulm hosts No. 3 ranked Marshall on Thursday.

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