Volleyball Hosts Three Matches This Week

St. Cloud, Minn. – The St. Cloud State volleyball team (15-10, 7-8 NSIC) plays a tough slate of matches this week with home contests against three ranked / receiving votes NSIC opponents. The program begins the week with a 6 p.m. contest against No. 9 Minnesota Duluth (19-4, 12-3 NSIC) on Oct. 31 at Halenbeck Hall. SCSU then has a pair of weekend contests to close out the 2017 home campaign. SCSU takes on RV Sioux Falls (13-7, 8-7 NSIC) on Friday night, Nov. 3, at 6 p.m. The program then hosts No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State (21-2, 13-2 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 4, at 2 p.m.

Each of the matches this week also has a theme associated with it. On Tuesday, there will be a Halloween Costume Contest so all fans are encouraged to dress up for a chance to win a prize, on Friday it will be Family/Parents Night and on Saturday it will be Senior Day for the team's three seniors (S – Kayla Crane, OH/RS – Nicole Miller and RS – Becca Gruber).

This Week's Opponents / Series History

No. 9 Minnesota Duluth lost a pair of NSIC road matches over the weekend to MSU Moorhead in five sets and to current No. 7 ranked Northern State in three sets.
UMD has still won six of the last eight matches headed into this week.
Sarah Kelly is leading the team with her 274 kills (3.56 per set) while hitting at .429 clip.
Makenzie Morgen has 258 kills (3.35 per set) with 31 service aces and 230 digs.
Kate Berg has 249 kills plus 20 service aces.
Emily Torve is the team leader with her 926 assists (12.18 per set)
Kenna Seiffert leads the team with her 251 digs.
Allison Olley has 186 kills, a .421 hitting percentage plus 75 blocks.
Abby Thor has picked up 57 blocks.
The Bulldogs defeated SCSU by a 3-0 count earlier this season in Duluth, Minn. on Sept. 19.
SCSU is 37-76 all-time against Minnesota Duluth in a series that started in 1969.
Sioux Falls lost a pair of 3-0 home matches over the weekend to Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State .
The program had won four of the last five matches before the weekend setbacks.
The Cougars take on Southwest Minnesota State on Tuesday before coming to St. Cloud for the Friday match.
Sioux Falls has been led this season by Makenna Rockeman, who has 257 kills (3.47 per set).
Lexi Scott has picked up 199 kills (2.65 per set) plus is hitting .339 with 82 blocks.
Bria Barfrecht has totaled 194 kills (2.73 per set) plus 165 digs.
Megan Hamstad leads the team with her 656 assists (9.11 per set) plus 15 service aces.
Janelle Lam is the club leader with her 333 digs (4.44 per set).
St Cloud State fell by a 3-1 count to Sioux Falls on the road earlier this season.
The Huskies trail the all-time series with Sioux Falls 5-2 since the schools began meeting in 2012.
No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State split the team's two weekend matches with a 3-0 victory over Minnesota State and a 3-1 loss to currently No. 1 ranked Concordia-St. Paul.
Both of SMSU's losses this season have come to ranked teams within the conference.
The Mustangs take on Sioux Falls on Tuesday and Minnesota Duluth on Friday before the match in St. Cloud on Saturday.
Taylor Reiss leads the team with her 387 kills (4.72 per set).
She also has 249 digs.
Kaylee Burmeister has 270 digs (3.29 per set) plus 264 digs.
Brooke Borchard has 219 kills, a .409 hitting percentage plus 72 blocks
Erin Corrigan has picked up 209 digs.
Sarina Smith leads the team with her 74 blocks.
Megan Larson leads the club with her 1,011 assists (12.33 per set) plus has 25 service aces and 220 digs.
Payton Hjerleid has a team-high 36 service aces.
The Huskies fell to SMSU by a 3-0 count on Sept. 29 in Marshall, Minn. when the Mustangs were the top ranked team nationally.
SMSU leads the all-time series with St. Cloud, 25-18, since the first meeting in 1969.
The Mustangs are 19-1 against St. Cloud since 2004
St. Cloud State won the first 16 matches of the series, but SMSU has won 25 of the last 27 matches.

Live Stats and Web Streaming

Live stats for the home matches against Minnesota Duluth, Sioux Falls and Southwest Minnesota State can be followed at this link / web streaming for the matches against the Bulldogs, Cougars and the Mustangs can be found at this link / live audio for the matches from KVSC can be found here

Notables

St. Cloud State went 1-1 on the week with a three-set loss to then No. 9 and current No. 7 ranked Northern State and 3-1 victory over Minnesota Moorhead on the road.
The team's 15 wins this season are the most for the program since the 2004 season and only the third time since 1998 that the program has won 15 or more matches.
Senior Becca Gruber led the team with her 17 kills (2.43 per set) on the week.
Gruber also hit .341 in the seven sets.
Freshman Maddy Torve totaled 40 assists to lead the team.
Sophomore Clara Krenz recorded 39 digs (5.57 per set).
Krenz continued to move up the school's single season and career digs lists over the weekend.
She now has 522 digs this season and that is the fourth-most in school history and only 35 from reaching Brianne Stamer's 557 (2015) for third place.
Krenz is 156 digs from reaching the top spot which is held by Andreanna Pieper (2007) who had 678.
Krenz also reached the top 10 in career digs at St. Cloud State and has 969 in her career.
She moved past Shannon Klink and is 52 from reaching seventh place held by Melissa Wright (1997-00) who had 1,021.
Krenz comes into the week leading the NSIC in both digs (522) and digs per game (5.93).
She is also 15th in the league with 28 service aces.
Senior Kayla Crane is 15th in the league with her average of 5.63 assists per set.
Senior Nicole Miller is 14th in service aces per set (0.32).
Sophomore Marah Mulso is 17th in the NSIC with her 0.80 blocks per set.
In the NSIC team rankings, SCSU is second in team attacks per set (38.34), digs per set (17.26) and total attacks (3,413), third in service aces (132) and total digs (1,537), sixth in kills (1,132) and assists (1,057) plus seventh in aces per set (1.48).

Up Next

St. Cloud State finishes out the 2017 regular season on the road with matches against No. 22 Wayne State College on Nov. 10 at 6 p.m. and against No. 16 Augustana on Nov. 11 at 2 p.m.
The program trails the all-time series with Augustana by a 48-17 count since the first meeting 1982.
The program lost to the Vikings at home by a 3-1 count on Sept. 22.
St. Cloud State is 3-11 all-time against WSC, but did defeat the Wildcats earlier this season in three sets when WSC was ranked No. 18 nationally.

Located in Central Minnesota along the oak-crowned west bank of the Mississippi River in the city of St. Cloud, Minn., St. Cloud State University sponsors 19 varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. The Huskies compete at the NCAA Division I level in men's hockey (National Collegiate Hockey Conference) and women's hockey (Western Collegiate Hockey Association), while its NCAA Division II programs hold membership in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and the University's nordic ski team competes in the Central Collegiate Ski Association.

To learn more about the academic opportunities available at St. Cloud State University, please visit stcloudstate.edu