Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Gracie Linbo gets a dig during a Big South Conference volleyball match against Waseca Monday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — In a game ruled by momentum, it was New Ulm that caught it last as the Eagles held off Waseca 14-25, 27-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-8 in a Big South Conference volleyball match on Monday.

Each one of the sets had a long run by the winning team that determined the result of the set.

“We did not play our best volleyball the first set,” New Ulm head coach Christine Skoglund said. “And we still struggled the second set, but I was still pretty proud of our team because we came back to win in that second set. Then after that, we kind of gained our momentum.

“We still went back-and-forth points rather than pushing ahead and getting consecutive points, so that made it harder for us to way the win we like to win and play the way we like to play, but all and all it was a great win and I’m glad my team pulled it out in five.”

Malorie Anderson and Alexa Barstad each had 12 kills for the Eagles, while Kenzie Enter had 31 set assists. Afton Hulke had 21 digs, while Evelyn Friese had four blocks.

Waseca had a 16-3 run to close out the first set and win 25-14. New Ulm struggled with serve receive in the set, something they have targeted as an area of improvement this season. However, as the match wore on, the Eagles settled down and started returning the ball more consistently.

“We just reminded them of their fundamentals,” Skoglund said. “They’ve got to get low, they’ve got to have straight and simple arms, and we have to have good footwork. Their eye work has to be good, they have to call the ball before they get to the net.

“There’s a lot of things involved in serve receive, and it’s probably the hardest part of volleyball besides defense and the back row. So once they got together, once they started communicating and once they started passing off their midline on their left, it got better.”

New Ulm got off to a slow start in Set 2, falling behind 14-9. However, momentum swung its way as they went on a 9-1 run, including a block by Anderson to take the lead, to go up 19-15. Waseca battled back to make it a 1-point game 25-24, but New Ulm hung on to win 27-25.

In Set 3, the teams were trading points for the majority of the game, with the score pulling ahead by more than 3 until three late kills by Barstad gave them the 25-19 victory. In that set, Waseca’s Siri Kuhns got her 1,000th career set assist on a kill by Aliyah Taylor.

Set 4 remained similarly close until Waseca went on a 8-1 run through a New Ulm timeout to go up 19-15. New Ulm battled to keep it even for the rest of the set, but it wasn’t enough for the comeback as they dropped the set 25-22.

With the game on the line in Set 5, New Ulm took a 6-5 lead on a kill by Anderson and never looked back, going on a 9-3 run as the final momentum swing of the game went in New Ulm’s favor. A kill by Barstad ended the set with a 15-8 victory.

New Ulm (8-4, 4-2) hosts Blue Earth Area in the third game of a five-game homestand.