Submitted photo The New Ulm boys' tennis team celebrated its first-ever Big South Conference title on Thursday with a 4-3 win over Luverne.

NEW ULM — On Tuesday, New Ulm clinched its first-ever Big South Conference championship with a 4-3 victory over Luverne, the West Division champions.

New Ulm remained unbeaten on the season and the Eagles will host Waconia in the Section 2AA playoffs at 4 p.m. on Monday at New Ulm High School.

New Ulm head coach Peter Engeldinger checked with school officials at they both confirmed that it’s the first ever conference title for New Ulm, including the old South Central Conference.

The Eagles clinched the East Division title earlier this year and had to wait for Luverne to beat St. James 4-3 on Monday to play them on Tuesday for the conference title outright.

“To be perfectly honest, we haven’t tracked conference championships, just because when you’re not fighting for that spot, you’re like ‘yeah, whatever,'” Engeldinger said. “Luverne has been doing pretty well, they go to state almost every year and their section is a little different [than New Ulm’s section]. We saw Luverne two Saturdays, but it was a different scenario and we didn’t go head-to-head against them. We knew their No.1 and No. 2 [singles] guys were tough, and we knew they had some good doubles, too. But we also knew that we had a good chance against them.”

New Ulm ended up with a 4-3 victory, taking three of four singles matches that day. The Cardinals took two of the doubles matches and a singles match, meaning both teams had three wins apiece with the No. 3 doubles match as the deciding factor.

There, the New Ulm duo of Isaac Davis and Dylan Carreon pulled off the win in front of all their teammates, who were all done with their matches and watching at that point.

Engeldinger said the ride back home to New Ulm that night was pretty special.

“They were out of hand, excited,” he said. “Everyone looking into it to see if New Ulm had ever won a conference championship. But it was pretty special. I talked to Mark Bergmann [Principal at NUHS] and he said that Troy Guentzel [Activities Director] and he checked it out and it is, in fact, the first one.”

Engeldinger said that his lineup, which is made up of mostly seniors, has come a long way over the years, but they’re more consistent than ever this year. Isaac Blumhoefer, who plays No. 1 singles, has only one loss this year and that’s to the No. 2-ranked player in the state from Waseca. Joey Gag, who plays at No. 3 singles, has yet to lose this year. Max Gieseke (No. 2 singles) and Ben Brownfield (No. 4) have also been steady and picking up victories. The doubles teams have also been winning, giving the Eagles a tough lineup all the way through.

The Eagles are the No. 3 seed in the Section 2AA, South Subsection playoffs and await Waconia in the prelims on Monday. If they win, they would travel to No. 2 Prior Lake on Tuesday. Mankato West is the No. 1 seed in the south subsection.

Engeldinger is looking forward to Monday’s match against Waconia, the No. 6 seed.

“Rumor has it, this is their first season as a team, they just got a guys team this year,” Engeldinger said. “It’ll be fun, I’m looking forward to a new crew coming here and it should be pretty awesome. We had a great practice [on Thursday], lots of hitting around and everyone seems pretty loose, from now on its sections and our goal is to do well in that south subsection and the north subsection (mostly metro schools) is pretty tough. But we like our chances.”