Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Talya Hoel (11) tries to spike the ball past a St. Peter player Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — The last time New Ulm faced St. Peter, the Eagles came away with a five-set victory over their Big South Conference rivals in St. Peter.

The Eagles, who entered Tuesday’s match against the Saints unbeaten in the Big South, saw their first setback of the conference season as the Saints picked up a 25-17, 25-21, 25-21 sweep at New Ulm High School.

The loss was especially frustrating for the Eagles because they had an early lead in all three sets, only to see St. Peter come back and finish the set with a victory.

Overall, it was an off night for New Ulm offensively.

“We played pretty inconsistent tonight, from our passing to our serving to our offense, we really couldn’t get anything going,” New Ulm coach Stef Dietz said. “They definitely were passing and moving the ball around way better than we were and using their front row a little bit more, being aggressive. There were times we played really well, and there were times where we didn’t.”

The Saints mixed up their hitting most of the night and kept the Eagles guessing.

“When you have strong hitters in the front row like that, teams are going to do that,” Dietz said. “We’ve got strong hitters in the front too and we can do that, we didn’t get that done today.”

In the first set, the Eagles took an early 5-2 lead thanks to some St. Peter hitting errors. But the Saints grabbed a 6-5 lead, only to see the Eagles take the momentum again and go up 9-6.

Up 13-10 on a St. Peter hitting error, the Eagles didn’t have an answer for the Saints after that. St. Peter went on a 7-1 run to go ahead 17-14 and the Saints led 22-14 later. An ace serve by the Saints closed out the first set.

Set 2 saw the Eagles take a 6-2 lead, forcing the Saints to take an early timeout. That timeout didn’t help out initially as New Ulm built an 8-4 lead and a 15-9 lead, but the Saints came back

Trailing 16-11, St. Peter went on a 7-0 run to go ahead 18-16. The Eagles tied it at 18-18, but the Saints finished strong to take the second set 25-21.

New Ulm grabbed leads of 3-1 and 5-2 in the third set, but the Saints battled back and eventually tied the set at 6-6. The teams went back and forth for most of the set, but St. Peter got some late momentum and took a 20-15 lead on a hitting error by the Eagles.

A service error by New Ulm ended the third set at 25-21.

For the Eagles, Caitlyn Todesco finished with 13 digs and Talya Hoel had five kills, 10 set assists, 13 digs and one block. Natalie Yackley finished with 11 digs and seven set assists and Nora Windschill had three kills, one ace, five digs and one block. Emmy Munson had four kills and one block and Nicole Albrecht finished with four digs. Ally Steffensmeier had four kills, six digs and one block and Riley Melby had two kills and six blocks.

New Ulm (8-7, 7-1) hosts St. James on Thursday in another Big South match.