By Travis Rosenau

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM — Boasting four 6-foot front-line players and a strong attack, Marshall overpowered New Ulm 25-13, 25-11, 25-10 on Thursday night at New Ulm High School in nonconference volleyball action.

Marshall (14-4), the No. 4 Class AA team in the state, sits at the top of the Big South Conference West Division. New Ulm (8-6), the Big South Conference East Division leaders, did what they could to maintain the Tigers on Thursday but were outplayed the majority of the match.

Logan Sherman, a 6-foot senior, led the Tigers with 13 kills, while 5-10 junior Emily Meier added nine kills.

Emmy Munson led New Ulm’s attack with five kills, while Nora Windschill, Talya Hoel and Ally Steffensmeier each added two kills apiece. Windschill and Hoel also each had eight digs apiece for the Eagles’ defense.

The Tigers jumped all over the Eagles in the opening set, taking a 13-3 lead after a spike by Bria Morris. The Eagles got a brief 3-0 run to trail 13-6 after a block at the net by Natalie Yackley and Riley Melby before Marshall regained control the rest of the set. Yackley had nine set assists and 10 digs for the Eagles.

In the second set, New Ulm led 4-2 early on after a pair of Marshall attack errors and an ace serve by Windschill that nicked the top of the net and dropped over. Marshall again regained control and went on a 13-0 run near the middle of the set to lead 23-9.

The Tigers had four blocks during the run, two coming from Sherman. After dropping the second set, the Eagles looked overwhelmed early in the third set and trailed 9-1 after a 3-0 Marshall run, prompting a New Ulm timeout.

Not much went well for New Ulm after the timeout, though, with a small victory being a late kill by Munson that pushed the Eagles’ point total for the third set into double digits.

“We knew coming in that they were going to have strong hitters and they were going to be a tough team … we knew that they were going to be running their offense all over the floor, and they did that, outside, middle, back side,” New Ulm head coach Stef Dietz said. “I felt like we hung with them in that first set and then the beginning of the second set. Our defense, as far as our block and our defense in the back row hung with them, but eventually when you play teams like this — they started to overpower us.”

The Eagles are still unbeaten in the Big South East at 7-0 and host St. Peter in conference action at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.