Huskies Fall in Four to Dragons, Suffer Second Consecutive Conference Loss

Saturday, September 22

St. Cloud, Minn.

2 p.m.

St. Cloud State

9-4, 5-2NSIC

Minnesota State-Moorhead

9-5, 5-2NSIC

MSU Moorhead

St. Cloud State

Photo by: Zach Siggelkow

Huskies Fall in Four to Dragons, Suffer Second Consecutive Conference Loss

9/22/2018 6:05:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – After dropping their first conference game of the season on Friday night to #1 Northern State, the St. Cloud State volleyball team (9-4, 5-2 NSIC) suffered another loss in NSIC play to the MSU Moorhead Dragons on Saturday at Halenbeck Hall. SCSU took the first set 25-22, but would drop the next three 23-25, 24-26, 25-27.

Prior to the match, as apart of St. Cloud State's year-long celebration for the 50th year of Women's Athletics at SCSU, AVCA Executive Director Kathy DeBoer served as the Huskies' honorary team captain.

Pregame festivities ✅
Special thanks to Kathy DeBoer for serving as our honorary captain for today's match!#NSICVB // #unleashSCSU pic.twitter.com/IEKAfXYiv4
— St. Cloud State Volleyball (@SCSUhuskies_vb) September 22, 2018

The Huskies quickly gained match momentum after jumping out to a 4-1 lead which included two kills from Linsey Rachel and one from Rachel Houle. After allowing the Dragons to come within two, SCSU went on a 5-1 run to take an 11-6 lead. Moorhead would play a clean first set, by only committing one error they posted a .273 hitting percentage and would eventually tie things up late in the set at 21 all. However, once the Dragons tied it up SCSU closed the set out on a 4-1 run to win 25-22.
Rachel Houle recorded six of her 16 kills in the set and posted a .545 hitting percentage. Linsey Rachel and Erin Navratil each had five kills while Clara Krenz paced the club with six digs.

Set one ✅
Huskies take set one 25-22 from Moorhead.
SCSU Kills: Houle (6), Rachel (5), Navratil (5)
SCSU Digs: Rachel (6), Olstad (5), Torve (5)#NSICVB // #unleashSCSU pic.twitter.com/Rk6VQBoglY
— St. Cloud State Volleyball (@SCSUhuskies_vb) September 22, 2018

In another tight finish, the Dragons would take set two 25-23 after taking advantage of six SCSU errors and following big performances out of Amanda Carlson and Madison Wassink. Carlson and Wassink each recorded four kills while Monica Vega had eight digs in the set. Rachel Houle added six kills to her career night but the Huskies could not keep up with the back and forth action down the stretch. The second set consisted of five lead changes and eleven different points where SCSU and MSUM were tied. The Huskies battled back from a three point deficit to put the score at 23-23 after taking advantage of two errors and picking up a kill from Rachel Houle. The Dragons would eventually earn the set two win after executing on one of SCSU's six set errors and receiving a big kill from Kylie Kanwischer.

SCSU controlled the lead throughout the beginning of set three, while at one point leading 7-3. A 5-1 run by the Dragons would give MSUM their first lead of the set before eventually allowing SCSU to lead by four. Trailing 21-17, Moorhead would go on another 5-1 run to give the dragons a 23-22 lead. Amanda Carlson would record two kills and use a SCSU error to their advantage to win set three 26-24. The set three loss was tough for SCSU to swallow since Linsey Rachel tallied five kills and seven digs in the set while Rachel Houle added four kills as well.

Dragons go up 2-1 in the match after SCSU falls in set three.
MSUM is led by Amanda Carlson's 14 kills and seven digs while Monica Vega has a game high of 24 digs.
Rachel Houle has added onto her career high with 16 kills.
Linsey Rachel: 14 kills & 18 digs, Krenz also has 18 digs pic.twitter.com/biixdvDnaG
— St. Cloud State Volleyball (@SCSUhuskies_vb) September 22, 2018

In another hard fought set that could have gone either way, the Huskies fell 27-25 after controlling a lead three times. SCSU did at one point trail by four points, but used a 4-1 swing to their advantage and would eventually go on to control a lead. SCSU faced match point while leading 24-23, but a handling error and a kill from MSUM's Monica Vega would give the Dragons the final run of momentum. Micah Nier brought the game back to 25-25 with a kill that was assisted by Maddy Torve, but the Dragons would post two consecutive points and take the match in four.

Despite suffering their second conference loss of the season, there were some career nights on the floor for the Huskies. Linsey Rachel tied her career high for kills with 19 while setting a new career high for digs with 25. Taylor Olstad recorded a career high of 20 digs while Rachel Houle also posted a career high of 16 kills. Clara Krenz charted a team high of 27 digs in the match as well. Of note, Maddy Torve posted 49 assists on the night while Madison Hucky had eight.

Moorhead recorded 17 team blocks over the four sets, compared to SCSU's seven. The Dragons had a .157 team hitting percentage while the Huskies were at .151.

The Huskies will continue their homestand next weekend when Wayne State and Augustana come to town on Friday, Sep. 28 and Saturday, Sep. 29.
SCSU will play Wayne State at 6 PM on Friday and Augustana at 2 PM on Saturday.

Tickets are available at the door on the day of the event or on-line at scsutickets.com.
Fans not at the match can watch, listen and follow the stats from home.