Huskies’ Five Game Winning Streak Snapped by #1 Northern State

Friday, September 21

St. Cloud, Minn.

6 p.m.

St. Cloud State

9-3, 5-1NSIC

Northern State

14-0, 6-0NSIC

Northern State

St. Cloud State

Madison Hucky

Photo by: Zach Siggelkow

Huskies’ Five Game Winning Streak Snapped by #1 Northern State

9/21/2018 9:10:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

SCSU fell in straight sets on Friday night at Halenbeck Hall.

By: Zach Siggelkow

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – For the first time since 1995, the St. Cloud State volleyball team (9-3, 5-1 NSIC) started their conference season with a five game winning streak. The five game streak in conference play stands as the program's longest in the NSIC era. Of note, SCSU started their 2017 campaign with a six game winning streak over non-conference opponents.

On Friday night, #1 Northern State snipped the Huskies' string of wins to improve to 14-0 overall and 6-0 in NSIC play.

The Wolves played like the top team in the country on Friday night, winning in straight sets (25-20, 25-14, 25-20) while posting a team .272 hitting percentage for the match. Pacing the offensive efforts for NSU was Hailey Busch who charted 15 kills on 33 attempts (.434) with only one error. Jayden Langlie recorded a game high of 19 digs while the Wolves combined for 6.5 team blocks.

St. Cloud State found themselves tied with Northern State 15-15 after overcoming deficits of four and three in set one. The Huskies looked to be roaring into the stretch of the set with kills from Krista Kuglin and Erin Navratil to tie things up, but the Wolves put a stop to any momentum SCSU had gained by posting six unanswered points to take a 21-15 lead.
Following the six point skid, the Huskies crawled back to a five point deficit courtesy of two kills from Marah Mulso and one from Linsey Rachel. SCSU fell in set one, 25-20 where Rachel and Mulso combined for seven kills and Clara Krenz totaled seven digs. Hailey Busch recorded five of her 15 kills in the opening set.

In set two, Northern jumped out to a 5-2 lead before SCSU scored three unanswered points to tie the set at five. From there, it was a back and forth duel that consisted of Northern going up by one or two, then SCSU scoring to manage the deficit. Once the Huskies found themselves down three, Northern took advantage of two Husky errors while also picking up a pair of kills from Sally Gaul to go up 15-8.
The Wolves would enter match point on a 9-2 run before SCSU scored three unanswered points to eventually fall 25-14 leading into the third set.

The final set did not consist of any large scoring droughts by either team, but Northern did lead early and allowed SCSU to tie the set five times, and come within one point nine times. The Huskies could never control a lead, but continuously showed flashes of what could be an interesting set down the stretch had they not recorded five errors. NSU would go on a 5-1 run to go up 22-17 before eventually winning the match 25-20.

Linsey Rachel led the Huskies in kills with nine, while Krista Kuglin and Marah Mulso each contributed seven. Erin Navratil contributed six more while Clara Krenz posted a team high of 13 digs. Rachel and Taylor Olstad would also add nine digs each. Maddy Torve recorded 27 assists as well.

The Huskies will host MSU-Moorhead on Saturday afternoon at 2 PM in Halenbeck Hall. The Dragons are 8-5 overall and 4-2 in the NSIC after falling to #9 Minnesota Duluth in four sets (25-15, 25-22, 27-25, 25-12) on Friday night.

Tickets are available at scsutickets.com or at the door.
Fans not in attendance will be able to watch, listen and follow the stats at 2 PM!