Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Alexa Barstad (13) attacks the ball during a Big South Conference volleyball match with St. James Area on Thursday night at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — While New Ulm’s serve receive still had its shaky moments during Thursday night’s Big South Conference volleyball match with St. James Area, a dominant defensive effort by the Eagles was more than enough to stave off the Saints for a 25-16, 25-17, 25-11 sweep at New Ulm High School.

While the Eagles allowed the Saints to take two early leads on errors in the first set, the Eagles closed the set strong on a 7-0 run that was capped off on a block by Malorie Anderson, who had three blocks in the match, and a Saints attack error.

The ending of that set couldn’t have gone better for the Eagles, who also benefited from their defense.

“First set we struggled on serve receive and that’s why our setter was running all over the place and our hits were off,” Eagles head coach Christine Skoglund said. “Once we fixed that on the second and third set was much better, and second half of the first set. First we fixed the serve receive and that always makes it easier for our setters and hitters to be on point, too, to get those kills and to get those set assists.

“Our defense was the MVP tonight. Our blockers were on after I told them to adjust a little bit, our defense was fantastic and we just hustled all over the place, so I was very happy with that.”

Kenzie Enter had 23 set assists and 18 digs for New Ulm, while Afton Hulke had 13 kills and 13 digs.

Hulke is just one senior leader for the Eagles this year and she made a point to show that on Thursday.

With the Eagles down 17-16 in the second set after a tip at the net by Madelyn Malmgren, Hulke got back-to-back kills to put the Eagles back in front. She also had a big kill from the back row in the third set late to keep the Eagles’ momentum going.

“She’s my floor captain now and she’s really come alive in the last two weeks,” Skoglund said. “She’s really getting on top of the set, she and Kenzie are really talking more so they have a better setter-hitter connection right now, and she’s just playing well. She has more confidence and I need her all six positions every single night we play.”

After Hulke’s back-to-back kills in Set 2, an SJA violation was followed by an Alexa Barstad ace to give New Ulm a 20-17 lead. The Eagles rode that momentum into a 9-0 run to close the set, getting two more aces by Barstad during that time and getting the set point on a kill by Hulke.

Barstad’s jump serve wreaked havoc on the SJA defense throughout the match as she collected six aces to go with five kills.

“Her jump serve is really dynamic,” Skoglund said. “She just gets right on top of that ball and it just goes to the other side and goes straight down. It’s very hard to defend and that’s what we want, that was one of our game plans. As long as we get them out of their serve receive and get them out of system, that’s what we need and she just did that by herself with the help of her serve.”

The Eagles took an early 8-1 lead in the final set and later went on two 6-0 runs to create even more distance. The Saints got a 5-0 run late in the set to prompt a New Ulm timeout, but Brooklyn Hagberg ended the match with a spike out of the timeout.

Hagberg finished the night with six kills. Also for New Ulm, Gracie Linbo had 17 digs.

The Eagles (10-5, 6-2) are at Waseca on Monday night for another conference matchup.