Offense clicks as No. 7 Huskies down Crookston in straight sets

Saturday, October 22

Crookston, Minn.

2:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

19-4,11-4NSIC

Minnesota Crookston

3-20,2-13NSIC

St. Cloud St.

Minn.-Crookston

Photo by: Kaitlyn Zuehl

Offense clicks as No. 7 Huskies down Crookston in straight sets

10/22/2022 11:15:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Linsey Rachel moves to second all-time in career kills, five Huskies hit better than .300

CROOKSTON, Minn. – No. 7 St. Cloud State Volleyball found their offensive footing in a straight-set win at Minnesota Crookston on Saturday afternoon.

Grad student outside hitter Linsey Rachel moved into second all-time in program history with career kill No. 1496, passing Kathy Davis. Rachel sent down a whopping 13 kills on .360 hitting, adding two blocks.

Phebie Rossi put away nine kills on .600 hitting with seven blocks while middle partner Sam Zimmerman hit .538 with eight kills and four blocks. Kenzie Foley led SCSU with nine digs and added six kills while Makena Hollman provided six kills of her own on .400 hitting.

Emma Berran directed the offense to hit .388 with 36 assists and set a career-high with five blocks. Berran and Rachel Houle shared the Huskies lead with a pair of aces each.

Turning Point
After an up-and-down first set in which they hit just .212 and won by two points, St. Cloud State turned up the tempo on the offensive end to hit .542 in the second and .464 in the third. The offensive efficiency combined with 12 total blocks was more than enough to squash the Golden Eagles as Berran distributed the ball well to her hitters.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann

"I thought Crookston played really good volleyball, especially in that first set. They didn't make many unforced errors, put a lot of pressure on us at the service line. They served tough and made us pretty uncomfortable. Their outside hitters were good for them, limiting errors in that first set. It was good to see us respond in a pressure situation."

"I felt we took really good care of the volleyball on our side of the net. 15 kills, just two errors, we got the ball to our middles really well in that second set. All of our attackers helped put some pressure on them."

"The key down the stretch is to have everyone as a team playing as well and as consistently as we possibly can. Tonight I thought we had quite a few of our attackers hitting with high efficiency – we're still trying to get a match where all five are doing a good job from the first point all the way to the last. That's the key to being successful. Limiting opponents runs, playing as clean and consistently as we can."

Reflecting on Linsey Rachel's response to climbing the kills leaderboard… "I think for Linsey the key has always been winning. That's the focus point. You don't hear her talking about records, you don't get the feeling that she's overly concerned about it – I certainly think she understands it's there. I think she would probably win a bunch of matches with less kills than lose matches with a bunch of kills. From that standpoint, she's always been a quality teammate and a quality leader."

Notables

Linsey Rachel sent down 13 kills on .360 hitting, moving to second all-time in program history with kill No. 1496 and passing Kathy Davis (88')
Rachel is now 71 kills away from matching Cami Selbitschka's (96') all-time mark of 1567
Phebie Rossi provided a 9-0-15 attacking line with seven blocks
Rossi's seven blocks moved her into a tie for fourth all-time with Ellie Dietzen (13') with 367
Sam Zimmerman hit .538 with eight kills and four blocks
Makena Hollman hit .400 with six kills
Emma Berran dished out 36 assists with a career-high five blocks
Kenzie Foley led the Huskies with nine digs
SCSU eclipsed a .300 hitting percentage for the first time since September 17 against MSUM
The Huskies defense held opponents to a .102 hitting percentage and just 9.00 kills/set on the weekend

Up Next
The Huskies continue their four-match road stretch with a Tuesday match at Minnesota Duluth before traveling to MSU-Moorhead and Northern State next weekend.

Information regarding single game and season tickets can be found at scsutickets.com. For all the latest on St. Cloud State Volleyball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.