Balanced offense leads No. 9 Huskies to sweep of No. 7 SMSU

Friday, November 11

St. Paul, Minn.

5:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

24-5,15-5NSIC

Southwest Minnesota State

23-6,15-5NSIC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
St. Cloud St.	25	30	25	3
Southwest Minn. St.	20	28	19	0

Photo by: Thomas Breach

Balanced offense leads No. 9 Huskies to sweep of No. 7 SMSU

11/11/2022 9:45:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

St. Cloud State earns berth in Saturday’s Semifinal with straight-set upset

ST. PAUL, Minn. – No. 9 St. Cloud State Volleyball earned a statement win on Friday evening in the NSIC Quarterfinal, taking down No. 7 Southwest Minnesota State in straight sets at the Gangelhoff Center.

The Huskies' offense found their rhythm early and passed well to stay in system, putting away 49 kills on .283 hitting. Both Kenzie Foley (13 K) and Linsey Rachel (12 K) sent down double-digit kills from the pin while Makena Hollman (8 K, .429), Phebie Rossi (8 K, .438) and Sam Zimmerman (7 K, .312) each averaged over 2.0 kills/set and hit better than .300.

Emma Berran was simply brilliant in her collegiate postseason debut, dishing out 43 assists (14.3 A/S) and converting on 46.7% of her sets. The true freshman recorded her 1,000^th assist of the season during the match while adding seven digs and a kill.

After taking the first set 25-20 and siding out on 80% of their chances, the Huskies and SMSU traded punches late in the second. The lead changed sides seven times in the middle frame with a whopping 20 tied points – SCSU dug deep to fend off multiple set points to take a 2-0 match lead with a 30-28 final. In the third, St. Cloud State outhit Southwest .367 to .161 to take the decisive set 25-19.

Foley and Rachel double-doubled with 12 and 11 digs respectively as Rossi shut down the net with four blocks. Zimmerman, Rachel, Foley and Hollman each added two blocks while Keely Kurschner recorded 10 digs. Kurschner, Rachel and Foley combined to go 57-for-57 on serve receive.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann

"Crazy things happen sometimes. Life things can get in the way. Our women did a great job of focusing on just volleyball – the things they had to, the things they can control on the court tonight. All of our women played solid, we passed well, I thought we put Southwest in some uncomfortable spots in serve receive. We did a great job of limiting our errors overall. You pile all that stuff together, and you give yourselves a chance to win. We did a really good job."

"Sometimes you get the feeling in matches that things aren't going to go your way. I had a much better feeling tonight than what I had going into the fifth set at Southwest. Some things happened there where nothing is going your way, and things tonight seemed to go our way – close calls and things like that. Just to make some big plays at the end of that one. Our women did exactly what we needed to, we sided out and scored when we needed to, put some good swings on the ball and good things happened."

"I thought Emma Berran did a fantastic job. Three sets and she averaged over 14 assists per set? That's pretty darn good – that would lead the country by a lot. A small sample size – we did enough on defense to slow them down, I thought our blocking could have been a little bit better, but credit to Southwest. They're a scrappy team, they make you work hard for your points, but our hitters just put a lot of really good swings on the ball. Every time we needed to make a play, we made a play."

"We were hungry. Some teams, when they're fighting for their lives, they play very tight and scared. I felt we were fighting for our lives and playing loose. I'm very proud of what the women did tonight as far as handling that pressure – knowing that if things don't go well, our season is done. If we don't win the match, our season is done. We put ourselves in a good spot, we have to win another one tomorrow. It's a sudden-death tournament right now."

Quotables – St. Cloud State senior middle blocker Phebie Rossi

"We played with each other and for each other – every time we scored a point we were screaming and cheering for our teammates – it was a really fun, well-fought match with everyone involved."

"The key was we had everyone involved. Every player had a great night tonight, and it's so fun when we all get involved – it makes the other team have to think more. They can't set out on one person and just wait there, they have to be ready to block on each of us."

"This match and the next two are really important to us. We want to be at the NCAA Tournament. We think we're good enough. We're going to keep fighting, keep our nose to the grindstone and keep working."

Notables

Emma Berran recorded her 1,000^th assist of the season with 43 on the night, adding seven digs and a kill
Kenzie Foley double-doubled with 13 kills and 12 digs to go with two blocks
Foley has double-doubled in four straight postseason matches dating back to 2021
Linsey Rachel added a 12-kill, 11-dig double-double with two blocks and an ace
Rachel is now nine digs away from reaching her 1,500^th collegiate dig
Makena Hollman hit .429 with eight kills and two blocks
Phebie Rossi put down eight kills on .438 hitting with four blocks
Rossi is six blocks away from recording her 400^th collegiate block
Sam Zimmerman hit .312 with seven kills and two blocks
Keely Kurschner posted 10 digs and an ace
Emily Kern had five digs and scored an ace
The Huskies outhit SMSU .283 to .214 and outdug them 50 to 38
St. Cloud State's serve receive was 57-for-58 with their lone ace surrendered being an out-of-rotation team error
SCSU is now 6-1 all-time in the NSIC Tournament under head coach Chad Braegelmann

Up Next
The Huskies battle eight seed Augustana – as the Vikings upset top-seeded No. 2 Wayne State on Friday night – in the Semifinal on Saturday evening. First serve is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT at the Gangelhoff Center with coverage provided on the NSIC Network and 97.5 FM RadioX.

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.