File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm High School’s Ella Landsteiner attacks the ball during a recent home volleyball match at NUHS.

By Jeff Meder

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM — New Ulm earned its fourth victory of the season with a 25-14, 25-18, 25-22 win over St. James Area on Thursday in Big South Conference volleyball action.

The Saints remain winless in seven matches this season. They lost 3-2 on Monday to Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey. New Ulm dropped a five-set match to St. Peter on Tuesday.

Eagles head coach Sarah Swanson-Cullen said they used the entire bench throughout the match. She also said they used a couple of different rotations during the first two sets.

The third set was an interesting one because New Ulm led for roughly the first quarter of it. The Saints took their first lead of 9-8 on Madi Whitney’s block.

“They came out and fought in that last set,” Swanson-Cullen said. “When we got down, we knew that we needed to do it. So, we stepped up and we we won it.”

Later in the set, Ali Malmgren made a solid return which gave the Saints their biggest lead at 18-13. An out-of-bounds return and a net violation by New Ulm boosted SJA’s advantage to 20-13.

New Ulm began its comeback in the set when a blocked ball went down the backs of two Saints defenders. That made it 20-14 for SJA. Taylor Sodeman hit the ball into the net which tied it at 22-22. New Ulm got a crucial kill to regain the lead at 23-22. Brooklyn Hagberg’s ace gave the Eagles another point and an out-of-bounds return by SJA gave the Eagles the set and the match point.

“I reminded our players that we needed to win in three sets,” Swanson-Cullen said. “We’re not going to go to a fourth set.”

She was pleased when the Eagles had their backs up against the wall, they knew that they needed to get going — and they did. The Eagles had a total of 13 ace serves for the entire match.

In the first set, the Eagles jumped out to an early lead and they kept the Saints at bay. New Ulm did a good job of communicating with one another and setting up the ball for fellow teammates to return the ball. Both teams worked hard to return the ball and earn points for its respective side.

The Eagles got off to a solid start in the second set. They led 12-4 early on. Whenever SJA tried to mount a comeback, the Eagles remained calm and responded with scoring points when needed.

Laura Bertrang made a soft tip which made it 24-17 New Ulm. Afton Hulke’s kill secured the set win for the Eagles.

Amber Lee led the Eagles with 34 set assists and eight digs. Ella Freiderich had 20 digs, Bertrang added 12 kills and Hulke had nine digs, four kills and four aces. Ella Landsteiner had seven kills and Emma Gieseke added five kills.

New Ulm (4-2, 4-1) will host Fairmont on Tuesday.