Staff photo by Ari Selvey
New Ulm’s Morgan Hulke (3) goes for a spike during a nonconference volleyball match against Mankato East Thursday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — New Ulm battled Mankato East to a four-set loss Thursday in a nonconference volleyball match, falling 19-25, 25-19, 25-9, 26-24 to the Cougars.

Brooklyn Lewis had six kills, 10 digs, four aces and two blocks for the Eagles, while Lauren Schmiesing had four kills and a block. Kenzie Enter added 10 digs, nine set assists, an ace and a block.

“Three sets, I was very proud of my team,” New Ulm head coach Christine Skoglund said. “The first set they played amazing. Brooklyn Lewis went on a serving run, and that’s where we got our consecutive points and that’s where we got the win. Second set was super close, we just had a couple of mental errors on that one.

“Fourth set I was really proud of even though we lost by two. We were down 16 to 22 and we showed some grit and came back. The third set was obviously the down set for us. Mentally we just kind of went down, all of our skill levels went down, especially our serve-receive.”

New Ulm started the first set off strong, with the front row defense especially causing Mankato East to struggle.

While the Cougars did jump out to a 4-0 lead in Set 1, New Ulm battled back to cut the lead to 8-6. A quick 3-point run by Mankato East forced a New Ulm timeout, and the Eagles continued to fight back. By the time Mankato East called a timeout after a kill by Morgan Hulke, New Ulm had cut the lead to 18-17. The Eagles took the lead for the first time on a block by Hulke two points later, and an ace by Lewis forced another Cougars timeout with New Ulm up 22-18. The Eagles finished out the set with a block by Calli Koop to win 25-19.

Set 2 also started with a Cougars lead, with Mankato East going up 6-3 early as it began to adjust to New Ulm’s front row defense.

“Our block was doing really well, so what they did was they set a higher set four their outside hitters, and they just got over our block a lot of the time,” Skoglund said. “So then we started getting frustrated. After that we just had to come back and work on our fundamentals. Then our block got better and better.”

Mankato East continued to build its lead, largely behind the arm of Carlie Wendinger, who had eight kills in the set and 23 in the match. By the time New Ulm called its second timeout, Mankato East held an 18-13 lead. New Ulm went on a quick 3-0 run to draw within two, but the Cougars were able to hold on and a kill by Wendinger ended the set.

The Cougars carried that momentum into Set 3, taking an 8-0 lead to start. Wendinger had five more kills as Mankato East rolled New Ulm 25-9.

New Ulm regained focus in Set 4, scoring the first point for the first time all night on a kill by Makena Meier. The Eagles converted that into a 7-4 lead after two kills by Schmiesing and one by Isabelle Longtin. The teams battled for a few points, until Mankato East took a timeout with New Ulm up 12-7. Mankato East began to climb back in the game, tying the set at 14 in the middle of a 13-2 that ended in a 22-16 lead for the Cougars.

A kill by Lewis sparked a 6-1 run for the Eagles to cut the lead to 23-22, forcing a Mankato East timeout. However, a kill by Wendinger helped seal a 26-24 victory for the Cougars, winning the set and the match.

New Ulm (1-9) play at Jackson County Central in a tournament on Saturday.