Volleyball keeps winning with 3-0 sweep of Bemidji

Thursday, September 12

St. Cloud, Minn.

5:30 p.m.

St. Cloud State

8-0

Bemidji State

2-5

Bemidji St.

St. Cloud State

Chloe Dousette goes up for a kill in the Huskies match against Bemidji State.

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

9/12/2019 7:47:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

ST. CLOUD, MINN. – The St. Cloud State University volleyball team has been hot almost longer than anyone can remember. Back in 2018, the Huskies closed the season with two dominating sweeps of Minot State and Mary.

It seems St. Cloud State's winning ways have carried over to 2019. The Huskies improved their overall record to 5-0 and won their seventh consecutive match Thursday night with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-13) sweep of Bemidji State University.

St. Cloud State was the far more dominant team throughout the match, as they out-hit, out-set, and out-dug Bemidji State through three sets of play. At the end of the night, the Huskies hit .236 as a team with 47 kills, 45 assists, five aces and 62 digs, while the Beavers struggled as they just managed to hit over .000 as a team by the end of the match.

If the final stats were any indicator, it was all Huskies early and often in the opening set, as they jumped out to an early 17-4 lead thanks to dominant offensive and defensive play. In the first set, St. Cloud State tallied 16 kills as a team and committed just five errors, thanks in large part to phenomenal offensive play from Phebie Rossi (Rapids City, S.D. / Stevens) and Chloe Dousette (St. Paul, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall). Those two, along with junior setter Maddy Torve (Loretto, Minn. / Heritage Christian Academy), guided the Huskies to a 25-13 first set victory and an early 1-0 lead in the match.

Things were much tighter in the second set, as Bemidji State managed to hang with St. Cloud State point-for-point until the very end. Any time the Huskies managed to gain a small bit of momentum, the Beavers strong defensive play in particular stopped the swing right in its tracks.

St. Cloud State eventually managed to grab a two-point lead it never relinquished, as an ace from junior defensive specialist Taylor Olstad (Eagan, Minn. / Eagan) gave the Huskies their largest lead of the set at 19-16. Though the Beavers were able to take a few points, they were never truly able to cut into St. Cloud State's lead, as a kill from Rossi sealed the deal at 25-20.

The Huskies made quick work of Bemidji State in the third set, as they cruised to a 25-13 victory to win the match 3-0. An ace from first year outside Abigail Groeneweg (Forest Lake, Minn. / Forest Lake) set the tone for the entire set, as St. Cloud State took an early 6-2 lead it would never look back from.

Dousette and Linsey Rachel (Maple Lake, Minn. / Maple Lake) were particularly lethal in set number three, as they each tallied four-plus kills in the final set. In fact, Rachel was a force at the net in multiple ways, as her first solo block of the night gave the Huskies a 14-5 cushion. Though Bemidji State managed to go on a small three-point run after that, St. Cloud State was able to stop the bleeding and continued to dominate en route to its 25-13 win.

Dousette was completely dominant for the Huskies Thursday evening, as she racked up 12 kills and committed just three errors in her first match in Halenbeck Hall. Rachel added 11 kills and tallied another double-double with 13 digs, while Rossi finished the match with a .500 hitting percentage thanks to yet another 11 kill performance.

Torve was once again impressive Thursday evening, as she tallied 37 assists and moved up to ninth all-time in career assists with 1695 in her time as a Husky.

Clara Krenz (Oakdale, Minn. / North St. Paul) was the team's top defensive player. The reigning Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Defensive Player of the Week led the team with 20 digs, while Olstad finished the night with 10.

With the win, St. Cloud State improves its record to 5-0 this season and wins its seventh consecutive match dating back to 2018. The Huskies will look for two more wins on Friday, as they take on Lake Superior State University and No. 21 Michigan Tech on the second day of the Best Western Kelly Inn Huskies Volleyball Classic. St. Cloud State is set to take on the Lakers at 9 a.m. before facing the nationally ranked Huskies at 7:30 p.m. in Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud, Minnesota.