Volleyball splits to open 2018 season

Friday, August 24

Hilo, Hawai'i

12:30 p.m. HST

St. Cloud State

0-1

Simon Fraser

1-1

Simon Fraser

St Cloud State

The Huskies hit roughly .400 as a team in their 3-0 sweep of Hawaii-Pacific Friday afternoon.

8/25/2018 8:00:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

UPDATE (3:35 a.m. CT): Due to flooding in the Hilo area, the remainder of the First Hawaiian Bank Volleyball Challenge has been canceled, including St. Cloud State volleyball's remaining matches against UH-Hilo and Chaminade. More updates will be made as they become available throughout the day.

HILO, HAWAII – It hasn't necessarily been the start to the season the St. Cloud State University volleyball team was expecting. Yes, the Huskies expected sunshine, rainbows and days on the beach leading up to their first matches in the First Hawaiian Bank Volleyball Challenge in Hilo, Hawaii. What the team wasn't expecting was for its trip to interrupted by a hurricane named Lane.

Fortunately, St. Cloud State was able to overcome the adversity and split its two matches against Simon Fraser University and Hawaii-Pacific University to open the 2018 volleyball season. The Huskies fell to Simon Fraser 3-0 (17-25, 15-25, 21-25) in their season opener before rebounding with a big 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-13) win over Hawaii-Pacific.

St. Cloud State did not get off to the start it was opening for when it opened the tournament against the Clan Thursday morning. In fact, the Huskies hit just .128 as a team over the course of three sets while tallying just 28 total assists and 47 digs as a team. The young St. Cloud State team did see some positive production from its young starters, as first year outside Linsey Rachel (Maple Lake, Minn. / Maple Lake) led the team with a then career-high 10 kills and .308 hitting percentage in the loss, while sophomore setter Maddy Torve (Loretto, Minn. / Heritage Christian Academy) tallied 22 assists during the match. Junior libero Clara Krenz (Oakdale, Minn. / North St. Paul) led the way defensively with 16 digs, while Marah Mulso (Marshall, Minn. / Marshall) and Krista Kuglin (Minnetonka, Minn. / Minnetonka) each tallied two block assists.

After a difficult first match, the Huskies could very easily moped their way through their second match against Hawaii-Pacific. However, St. Cloud State earned its first victory of the season in resounding fashion, sweeping the Shark in straight sets en route to the 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-13) win.

Despite the final score, the first match between the Huskies and Hawaii-Pacific was relatively tight, as St. Cloud State needed to overcome an early 2-0 deficit before taking its first lead of the afternoon at 3-2 thanks to a kill by Rachel. However, the two teams would trade the lead for the next eight points before the Huskies earned eight straight points on a serving run by Micah Nier (Hatley, Wis. / Wittenberg-Birnamwood). The senior's tough serve forced the Sharks out of system offensively, while two kills from Abby Templin (Cold Spring, Minn. / ROCORI) and a handful of blocks helped St. Cloud State take a 12-7 lead midway through the set.

The Huskies maintained the lead for the remainder of the opener, eventually winning 25-16 on a Torve kill. St. Cloud State carried its dominance into the second set, as it jumped ahead 7-1 thanks, once again, to strong serving and timely hitting. The Huskies led by as many as 10 points at 20-10 before winning the set 25-13 after a tough serve from Katie Krenz (Oakdale, Minn. / Stillwater) resulted in a Shark hitting error for the win.

The story in set three was eerily similar as the second. St. Cloud State jumped out to a big, early lead it would never relinquish and eventually won the set 25-13.

Overall, the Huskies hit .380 as a team against Hawaii-Pacific, highlighted by a season-high .419 percentage in the third and final set. The team also tallied 47 kills against the Sharks, led by Rachel's career-high 13 kills while Templin and Nier each added nine.

Torve tallied a career-high 30 assists in the victory, while Clara Krenz contributed a season-high 17 digs on the defensive side of the ball.

With the split, St. Cloud State opened the season with a 1-1 record against nonconference opponents. The team will return to action on Saturday, August 25. The Huskies are set to take on the University of Hawaii-Hilo at 10 a.m. HST and Chaminade University at 10 a.m. HST before departing and returning to Minnesota.