Volleyball Splits A Pair of Five-Game Matches On First Day of the Keweenaw Classic

Friday, September 8

Houghton, Mich.

12:30 PM (CT)

St. Cloud State

6-0

UW-Parkside

1-4

SCSU

UW-Parkside

Clara Krenz

Photo by: Brad Olson

Volleyball Splits A Pair of Five-Game Matches On First Day of the Keweenaw Classic

9/8/2017 9:36:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Houghton, Mich. – The St. Cloud State volleyball team (6-1) played and split a pair of five-game thrillers on the first day of the Keweenaw Classic on Friday, Sept. 8, in Houghton, Mich. The program started the day with a thrilling 3-2 come-from-behind victory over UW – Parkside (1-4) by scores of 21-25, 23-25, 25-14, 25-21 and 15-13. The program followed a similar script in the second match of the day against Michigan Tech (5-2) in getting down a pair of games before winning the middle two contests and forcing a decisive fifth game. The program fell in the fifth game and the scores for the match were 23-25, 13-25, 25-16, 25-23 and 9-15.

In the UW-Parkside match, the Huskies dropped the first two sets and then needed to rally to win the last three. The program put a season-high four players in double figures in kills against the Rangers. Senior Becca Gruber totaled a match-high 14 kills while hitting at a .308 clip. She also tallied a pair of block assists. Junior Micah Nier recorded 12 kills and hit .370 for the match. Fellow junior Krista Kuglin sported 11 kills. Sophomore Marah Mulso totaled 10 kills, four assists and four block assists. Senior Kayla Crane directed the offense with 30 assists, three digs and a service ace. Senior Nicole Miller recorded nine kills and 13 digs plus a serviced ace. Freshman Maddy Torve had 21 assists, eight digs and four service aces. Sophomore Clara Krenz led the defense with her 28 digs. The team tallied 64 kills, hit .174 with 59 assists, nine service aces and 70 digs.

"I'm very proud of the fight this team showed against Wisconsin Parkside," head coach Chad Braegelmann explained. "To be down two games and claw our way back with a couple of close set wins and then finish the fifth set with a 15-13 victory shows a lot character for these young women. We still have to find a way offensively to limit our errors and be a little more diverse with our shot selection, but we will definitely take the end results."

The team had another hard fought contest in the second match of the day against host school Michigan Tech. The program again fell down by losing the first two sets before coming roaring back with victories in the middle two sets. In the fifth set, SCSU held an early 6-1 advantage but the Michigan Tech Huskies then score 14 of the next 17 points to earn the set and the match victory. Mulso led the team with her 12 kills. She also had six block assists and a service ace. Gruber totaled 11 kills and six block assists. Nicole Miller sported eight kills, eight digs and three service aces. Kuglin totaled seven kills and a pair of block assists. Crane recorded 28 assists and a service ace. Krenz led the squad with her 27 digs. Redshirt freshman Abby Templin recorded 11 kills and four digs. Fellow redshirt freshman Abol Barnaba provided a spark off the bench with six kills, a .714 hitting percentage and three block assists. St. Cloud State had 57 kills, 51 assists, seven service aces, 83 digs and 12 blocks in the five-game match.

"It was another thriller against Michigan Tech tonight," Coach Braegelmann stated following the contest. "They put a lot of pressure on us with the speed of their middles. Their outsides did a fantastic job scoring against us as well. We had a great chance in the first set with lead at the end that slipped away and then had trouble again siding out in the fifth set. The most fun was being down 16-8 in the fourth set and battling all the way back to find a way to force a fifth game."

The St. Cloud State volleyball team continues play in the Keweenaw Classic hosted by Michigan Tech on the second day of the tournament on Sept. 9. The Huskies takes on Northern Michigan at 12 p.m. and Lake Superior State at 4 p.m. on the second day. Live stats for the matches can be found here