Volleyball heads to Michigan for Wildcat Open

ST. CLOUD, MINN. – The St. Cloud State University volleyball team had quite the start to the 2018 season. The team traveled to Hilo, Hawaii to participate in the First Hawaiian Bank Volleyball Challenge, got stuck in a hurricane, and ended up going 1-1 in the tournament before its final two matches were cancelled due to flooding.

This weekend, the Huskies will be staying on the mainland for their next tournament, as they play in the Northern Michigan University 2018 Wildcat Open in Marquette, Michigan. St. Cloud State will open the tournament at 1 p.m. EST on Friday, August 31 with a match against Northwood University and will play Lake Superior State University at 5 p.m. EST later that evening. The team will also play Michigan Technological University at 11 a.m. EST on Saturday and the host Northern Michigan at 7 p.m. EST.

Fans will be able to follow all of the Huskies matches via live stats over the course of the weekend. For a fee of $20, fans can watch St. Cloud State's final match against host Northern Michigan on Saturday, September 2.

Here are the five things to know before the Huskies take off for Michigan this weekend:

1108 – With her 33 digs in Hawaii, junior libero Clara Krenz (Oakdale, Minn. / North St. Paul) moved to sixth all-time in program history in career digs. After the weekend, Krenz now has 1108 digs in her career at St. Cloud State, making her one of the most successful liberos in program history. Krenz also ranks second all-time in program history in single-season digs (628) thanks to her performance last season.

23 – Krenz wasn't the only Husky to put together outstanding performances in Hawaii. First year outside Linsey Rachel (Maple Lake, Minn. / Maple Lake) had quite the debut, as she led the team in kills in both matches in Hawaii. In St. Cloud State's 3-0 loss to Simon Fraser University, Rachel tallied a team-high 10 kills and committed just two errors in 26 attempts for an impressive .308 hitting percentage. Then, against Hawaii-Pacific University, Rachel set a career high in both kills (13) and hitting percentage (.407) to cap off her impressive weekend.

.380 – The Huskies hit .380 as a team in their 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-13) sweep of Hawaii-Pacific in the First Hawaiian Bank Volleyball Challenge last weekend. St. Cloud State's hitters, led by first year Rachel and sophomore Abby Templin (Cold Spring, Minn. / ROCORI), tallied a combined 47 kills and just nine errors over the course of three sets. More impressively, the Husky hitters never committed more than five hitting errors in a single set, while the Sharks tallied just 20 total kills on the other side of the net.

.638 – One of the main reasons for St. Cloud State's high-firing offense was setter Maddy Torve (Loretto, Minn. / Heritage Christian Academy). The sophomore recorded a career-high 30 assists in the victory over Hawaii-Pacific, meaning she had a hand in roughly 64% of the Huskies points scored.

3 – The Wildcat Open will feature some familiar opponents for St. Cloud State. In fact, the Huskies faced three of their four opponents in Michigan Tech's Keweenaw Classic last season, including Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and Lake Superior State. St. Cloud State posted a 1-2 record against those three opponents with its lone win coming in 3-1 fashion over the Lakers to close the tournament.

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Players Mentioned

Clara Krenz

Linsey Rachel

Abby Templin

Maddy Torve

Saint Cloud State University Athletics