New Ulm earned a 3-0 sweep of Waseca earlier in the week and stayed strong to improve to a 8-14 overall record.

“I thought we did really well communicating and having a lot of energy this game,” New Ulm’s Lauren Schmiesing said. “Everyone was just so positive. We had great passes this game, great sets, our connections were really good and our hits — we were really on tonight. It was a great game.”

Energy was key for the Eagles in the games they won, starting out with plenty of it in the first set.

“I feel like our energy was really high the first two sets,” New Ulm head coach Christine Skoglund said. “It was really low the third set, and that’s the one we lost, and it was kind of up and down that fourth set. But at least we had more energy at the end when we needed to win.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Avarey Sellner takes a hit between two St. James Area defenders during a Big South Conference nondivision volleyball match Thursday at New Ulm High School.

Schmiesing led New Ulm with seven kills, along with nine digs, three aces and five blocks. Calli Koop had six kills and 22 digs, and Brooklyn Lewis had six kills and 15 digs. Isabelle Longtin had 18 set assists, four kills and 14 digs, and Lily Poehler had 15 set assists, two kills and four digs.

New Ulm started off Set 1 with a 5-3 lead off of a kill by Longtin and a series of St. James errors. The Eagles continued to hold the lead, with an ace by Koop bringing the score to 14-9. However, St. James went on a 5-0 run to tie the game at 14 and force a New Ulm timeout.

New Ulm recovered with a kill by Keira Sullivan, and a kill by Koop helped the Eagles go up 23-18 and force a St. James timeout. St. James cut the lead down to 24-21, but an error ended the game with a New Ulm win.

The Eagles came hot out of the gate in Set 2, taking a 8-3 lead after kills by Lewis and Longtin. New Ulm maintained the lead out to 15-6 thanks to another kill by Longtin as St. James called a timeout. A pair of kills and a block by Schmiesing pushed the score to 19-8, and a trio of kills by Avarey Sellner, Sullivan and Lewis saw the score sitting at 22-13. One more kill by Koop and two St. James errors sealed the 25-16 victory.

New Ulm lost some of that energy in Set 3, falling behind 6-0 after a series of errors. New Ulm never recovered from the deficit, although it cut the score down to 19-16 after kills by Longtin, Karly Meier and Schmiesing. But St. James pushed the lead back to 22-16, and another kill by Meier wasn’t enough to prevent a 25-19 loss.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey From left to right, New Ulm’s Lauren Schmiesing, Cali Koop, Isabelle Longtin, Brooklyn Lewis and Lauren Hintz celebrate a point during a Big South Conference nondivision volleyball match against St. James Area Thursday at New Ulm High School.

St. James against started with the lead in Set 4, going up 6-4, but New Ulm tied the game with an ace by Longtin. The teams battled back and forth, with Sellner’s kill tying the game at 17 and Lewis’s kill tying the game at 18. An ace by Makenna LeGare gave New Ulm a 20-19 lead and drew out a St. James timeout. St. James battled back, and three kills by St. James’s Ava Spitzner helped them take a 23-22 lead. New Ulm called a timeout, and a kill by Koop and an error by St. James gave the Eagles a 24-23 lead. A New Ulm error tied the game at 24, but a kill by Schmiesing and a St. James error ended the set and the match.

“We knew once we lost that third game we had to come back stronger,” Schmiesing said. “We had to finish and focus that next set. We got our energy back up, communicated a lot more and just had a lot more positive energy.”

New Ulm plays at St. Peter on Tuesday. Schmiesing said that the team could take the resolve they showed in this game could be something they took into the rest of the schedule.

“We always push ourselves, and we’re determined. Very, very determined,” Schmiesing said. “That fourth game, I think taking that with us and being determined this season from now on. We can take that knowing we can focus, finish, push ourselves and keep working hard, we can do anything.”