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Eagles drop 5-setter to Irish

By Travis Rosenau 4 min read

NEW ULM -- For a pair of teams just beginning their volleyball seasons, their was no shortage of energy from the New Ulm Eagles or the Maple Lake Irish in Thursday night's nonconference matchup.

After the Eagles forced a fifth set with an electric fourth-set comeback, however, the Irish didn't let their 85-mile trip to New Ulm go to waste as they held on for a 23-25, 25-19, 25-20, 20-25, 15-7 win.

Calli Koop led the Eagles with 12 kills, while Lily Poehler had seven kills, 18 set assists, 15 digs and two ace serves and Leah Brustad had six kills and a solo block. Karly Meier added five kills, 23 digs and six solo blocks for New Ulm, while Keira Sullivan had three kills and four solo blocks, Gracie Baker had 13 digs and two aces and Mckenna Hulke had 10 set assists and 10 digs in her first game as a setter.

"Mckenna Hulke has never set before, but she did amazing tonight," Eagles head coach Christine Skoglund said. "She did amazing. We're working out the kinks. Of course we'd have liked to get a win, but I love that we went five with them. They're a very scrappy team."

The game, which had an earlier start time of 6 p.m., ended up turning into a two-hour battle thanks in large part due to a shot of energy off the bench by Brustad, a sophomore middle blocker. Brustad entered off the bench near the middle of the fourth set and proceeded to quickly pick up a kill. Moments later she added another kill, a block and a booming spike to put the Eagles up 21-18.

Brustad was just one of three sophomores to come in for the Eagles and make plays for Skoglund alongside Abbi Jensen and Kaybrie Melzer.

"Abbi Jensen went in for outside, she did a really good job, but Leah came in and really created that spark for us," Skoglund said. "Just that momentum and energy in volleyball, that's what got us winning on that set. I also had Kaybrie in, too, she did fantastic that first couple sets, but I just wanted to give her a rest for a little bit. But, yeah, we play sophomores all the way up."

The finish was a bit anti-climactic for the Eagles due to it coming on a Maple Lake error, but they didn't show any signs of disappointment and celebrated their extra chance to win the match after falling down 2-1 on the night.

The fifth set, however, was plagued by New Ulm attack errors and an overlap fault violation that helped Maple Lake jump out to a 13-5 lead. A Poehler kill and a block by Hulke helped keep the Eagles in the set but back-to-back attack errors finished the night.

"This season has gone really fast already," Skoglund said. "Normally we have at least another half of a week to get ready for the first match and we really have -- between tryouts, pictures and open house -- we haven't really had a lot of time to practice. That out of the way, serving and serve receive for the first two sets was rough for us, then the next set was hitting and blocking.

"We were amazing on that fourth set, we didn't have a lot of negatives, then fifth set again was our hitting. So we've just got to clean up our passing and then make sure that our hitters are transitioning back far enough and are on top of the ball."

The Eagles fell to the Irish in four sets last year in Maple Lake.

The Eagles started the night with a win, coming back from a 19-15 deficit late to tie it on a Poehler kill and take a 20-19 lead on a block from Meier. The set was tied twice after that before a Maple Lake error ended it and put New Ulm up 1-0 on the night.

Maple Lake created a 19-11 lead in the second set after an ace by Ainsley Rowe and kept distance from New Ulm for the rest of the way, winning the set on a service error. New Ulm took a 4-0 lead in the third set, but the Irish quickly tied it up at 5-all on a kill from Kennidy Kappes. Moments later, Maple Lake had a 6-0 run to lead 11-6 and stretched its lead to 18-10. The Eagles made a run near the end of the set to trail 21-18 and force a Maple Lake timeout, but the Irish hung on, winning the set after a New Ulm violation.

New Ulm travels to Rochester for a tournament Saturday morning before hosting Hutchinson at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

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