Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm's Laura Bertrang (10) spikes the ball over Lauren Niemeyer of St. Peter Thursday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — Other than a hiccup in the second set, New Ulm was in cruise control as it defeated Big South Conference rival St. Peter 25-15, 20-25, 25-17, 25-9 on Thursday at New Ulm High School in prep volleyball action.

The Eagles jumped out to big leads in all three sets that they won and never made it a contest. In the second set, the Saints got the early advantage and ran their offense much better, but they were unable to carry that momentum over for the rest of the match as the Eagles improved to 3-1 on the year. The loss was St. Peter’s first of the season (2-1).

Natalie Yackley had five ace serves, three kills, 30 set assists and six digs to lead the Eagles. Laura Bertrang was big up front, finishing with 10 kills and two blocks. Riley Melby had 10 kills, four aces, two blocks and five digs and Ella Freiderich had 11 digs. Nicole Albrecht had 22 digs and an ace and Maddi O’Connor had 11 digs and four kills.

Also for New Ulm, Emmy Munson had six kills and three digs and Gracyen Nesje had 10 digs.

New Ulm got the early 8-0 lead thanks to some St. Peter hitting errors in the first set and later led 10-1 thanks to another Saints hitting error. A tip from Laura Bertrang put the Eagles up 16-3 and another Bertrang hit made it 24-13. The Eagles won the set thanks to a St. Peter hitting error.

New Ulm had a 3-0 lead in the second set, but St. Peter quickly tied it and eventually went ahead 13-8, forcing the Eagles to call a timeout.

After the timeout, the Saints went up 17-11 and hung on for the victory.

The Eagles jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the third set and later led 15-6 after a kill by Emmy Munson. An Eagle block at the net resulted in a 20-9 lead and they hung on the rest of the way to take the 2-1 advantage.

The fourth set was the most dominating set for New Ulm. The Eagles rode the serving of Yackley to jump out to a 10-0 lead. They enjoyed leads of 14-2, 16-3 and they held on for the 25-9 lopsided win.

New Ulm will get back into action next Thursday when the Eagles travel to Blue Earth Area.

Prep volleyball

Springfield 3, Sleepy Eye 1

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield took three of four sets from Sleepy Eye, defeating the Indians 20-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-13 on Thursday in a Tomahawk Conference volleyball match.

Kadence Hesse had nine kills and 12 digs for Sleepy Eye and Morgan Hoffmann had six kills. McKenna Strong had six kills and three digs and Brooke Arneson had 12 set assists.

Prep cross-country

Springfield/CM girls take third at Section 3A meet

LUVERNE — Lily McCone finished 13th overall (20:41) and Emmie McCone was 16th (21:01) as the Springfield/Cedar Mountain girls’ cross-country team took seventh at the Section 3A meet on Thursday.

Skyla Dauer was 36th (22:08), Ellie Tonn was 46th (22:27) and Violet Hovland was 89th (24:18).

For the S/CM boys, Zack Hansch was 31st (18:52), Ben Potter was 35th (18:59), Matthew Groebner was 41st (19:05), Brayden Sturm was 45th (19:16) and Triston Groebner was 74th (20:11).

Prep football

NRHEG 26, GFW 20

WINTHROP — New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva defeated Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 26-20 in a South Central District football game on Thursday.

Brody Hentges threw a 48-yard touchdown pass to Damian Hopp and the Thunderbirds got a 40-yard touchdown pass from Hentges to Treay Taylor. The same two hooked up for a 45-yard touchdown connection in the third quarter to tie the game at 20-20, but NRHEG scored with 1:58 left to win the game.

Hentges threw for 152 yards and three touchdowns and Dominic Heinrichs had 177 yards rushing. Taylor had 85 yards receiving and Hopp had 63 yards receiving.