Huskies Sweep Crookston in Home Opener

Thursday, September 6

St. Cloud, Minn.

6 p.m.

St. Cloud State

5-2, 1-0NSIC

Minnesota Crookston

2-7, 0-1NSIC

Minn.-Crookston

St. Cloud State

Photo by: Maddie MacFarlane

9/6/2018 7:47:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

St. Cloud State has won their home opener in each of the last two years.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - In a dominant home showing by the St. Cloud State volleyball team (5-2, 1-0 NSIC), the Huskies opened their conference season at Halenbeck Hall with a sweep over the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles. The Golden Eagles will fall to 2-7 overall and 0-1 in NSIC play.

The Huskies jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the match, then added another four unanswered points to put the Golden Eagles in a five point deficit early in the first set. UMC was able to scratch back to a four point deficit, but the Huskies ran away with the set after Abby Templin and Micah Nier combined for nine kills while Taylor Olstad tallied six digs. Templin's back-to-back kills at the tail end of the set gave the Huskies a 19-10 advantage along with a momentum swing that carried them to a 25-15 set one victory. 22771

Set two started in favor of SCSU as well, a 7-2 advantage gave the Huskies an early edge until Crookston rallied back to score five unanswered points and tie it up. Following the first tie, Crookston never gained a lead over SCSU but did manage to tie the set on two different occasions. St. Cloud State picked up back-to-back kills from Marah Mulso to take a two-point lead before scoring five unanswered points to lead midway through the second set. Clara Krenz was credited with four digs and a service ace in SCSU's five point string to go up 18-12. The Golden Eagles stayed within reach by bringing the score to 21-18 late in the set, but SCSU would hold on to win by a score of 25-19. Rachel Linsey and Abby Templin each tallied three kills while Krenz added four digs.

In set three, St. Cloud State put together four strings of three consecutive points while also scoring five unanswered points to take a ten point advantage into the back end of the match. A 7-1 advantage in favor of SCSU gave the Huskies early momentum that they carried until Crookston battled back to decrease their deficit to three. Two kills from Templin and one more from Krista Kuglin put the Huskies back up by six before a service error would prevent SCSU from scoring nine unanswered points. Regardless, St. Cloud State went up 19-9 and would hold off another late effort from Crookston to complete the sweep with a 25-16 set three victory.

St. Cloud State did not trail in any of the sets in Thursday's match, and outscored Crookston 53-23. The Huskies recorded five blocks as a team and posted a .232 hitting percentage, compared to Crookston's -.039.

Abby Templin charted a game high of 11 kills while Linsey Rachel added eight.
Clara Krenz posted a game high of 14 digs while also totaling four assists and three service aces.
Maddy Torve paced the program in assists with 32 while Micah Nier, Krista Kuglin, Marah Mulso, Erin Navatril, Abby Templin and Halle Hughes contributed to the team's total of five blocks.

The Huskies will hit the road this weekend and travel to Bemidji, Minn. to take on the Beavers on Saturday, Sep. 8 at 1 PM.
Fans can follow live by watching or following the stats on Saturday.
Both the Huskies and Beavers will be wearing gold laces on Saturday to fight against pediatric cancer, where all proceeds will benefit the Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer foundation.