St. Cloud State wins 2022 NSIC Championship

Sunday, November 13

St. Paul, Minn.

1:00 p.m. CT

St. Cloud State

26-5,15-5NSIC

Concordia-St. Paul

26-5,17-3NSIC

St. Cloud St.

Concordia-St. Paul

Photo by: Thomas Breach

11/13/2022 7:00:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

No. 9 Huskies upset No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul at the Gangelhoff Center in five-set classic

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Tasked with beating the No. 3 team in the country on their home floor, No. 9 St. Cloud State Volleyball earned their second-straight Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament Championship by taking down Concordia-St. Paul in a five-set thriller at the Gangelhoff Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Huskies faced a difficult path to an at-large NCAA bid entering the conference tournament, taking matters into their own hands and controlling their own national tournament destiny by earning the NSIC's automatic bid.

Just as they had done in the first two rounds of the tournament, SCSU relied on a balanced offense and strong passing to keep themselves in system. Linsey Rachel led Huskies with 17-kill, 13 dig double-double while Phebie Rossi added 15 kills on .367 hitting and Sam Zimmerman recorded 13 kills on .400 to put three players in double figures.

St. Cloud State jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the match by taking the first two sets 28-26 and 25-20 while holding the Golden Bears to hit below .190 in both frames. Rachel fueled the offense, putting down eight kills in the first set alone.

Concordia St.-Paul came storming back to take the next two sets, hitting .552 and .516 while outkilling the Huskies 37-22.

The two giants of the Northern Sun traded punches in the fifth, knotting up the score eight times as the lead changed hands another four times. Neither team led by more than two points in the fifth. After a CSP block made it 13-12 Golden Bears, the Huskies sided out with a kill from Kenzie Foley. Rachel made it a match point with her 17^th kill of the evening, then a huge stuff block by Zimmerman and Makena Hollman sent the Huskies-packed Gangelhoff Center into a frenzy.

Foley anchored the SCSU defense with a career-best 26 digs, adding nine kills and three blocks. Emma Berran dished out 49 assists and posted three blocks. Keely Kurschner was simply phenomenal in serve receive, going 53-for-54 with 10 digs. Makena Hollman wrapped up the Huskies' attack with six kills on .333 hitting.

Sam Zimmerman, Kenzie Foley, Phebie Rossi and Linsey Rachel were each named to the All-Tournament Team. Zimmerman hit .412 with 2.82 kills/set while Rossi put away 2.91 kills/set on .409 hitting. Rachel led the Huskies at the tournament with 3.27 kills and 3.68 points per set while adding 3.55 digs/set. Foley took her defense to another level, averaging 5.09 digs/set to go with 3.09 kills/set.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann

"I'm happy for the women on the team. You feel like you have a good season, and because your region is so deep and so talented you're sitting here on Championship Sunday not knowing if you have a spot in the NCAA Tournament. I'm really proud that these ladies have a chance to go dancing in the Tournament like this and play some of the best teams in the country. That's what you hope for. You want to play great teams – and if you want to win a NCAA Championship, you have to get there first. The women have set some goals, and it's been a lot of fun to see them progress through the season. I think we can say we're playing our best volleyball at the end of the season, hopefully we stay healthy and get some rest."

"We were doing a really good job serving and passing. We defended fairly well, we limited them a little bit offensively in the first two sets – at the end of the second set, all the momentum was going our way. Then the third set hits, and we felt like we couldn't do a lot of stuff right. We still were okay offensively, but they hit .500 in both the third and fourth set, putting us on our heels."

"There's something to be said about the game of volleyball – whether you lose 25-5 or 25-23, you just start over in the next set. We had a feeling of, 'well, we'll see how the fifth set goes.' We get to the fifth set, and it was fun – a bit of back-and-forth, we showed some grit when we were down 13-12."

"Tonight was certainly one that you will remember a long time. That's the thing – you try to help these women make memories and have a great time, and I think this one will be one they remember for a long time. I'm very happy for them."

"We had great fans today – I can't say enough about our fans. Our parents were here, our friends were here. We have some pretty popular women at St. Cloud State, and that's so good."

"The seniors have been so consistent. We have three captains that have seen a lot. Rachel has been doing a great job from the bench – out with an injury – so she's just doing what she can do to help our team be successful. We have a lot of freshmen on the floor. We're playing three freshmen and a sophomore pretty regularly along with some upperclassmen. Phebie and Linsey have been doing a great job on the floor, but certainly off the floor as well. Being even-keeled, knowing when things have to be addressed and what things have to be let go."

"The key is we have some great young women involved in the program. They're the ones that make the plays, the ones that put in the work, they make sacrifices in the summertime, they're great teammates, they fight the ups and downs. Every team is trying hard to win, but these are the women that are able to actually go out there and do it right now. We're fortunate to have them on a day-to-day basis. Marci does a fantastic job and puts in really good spots. The leadership has been fantastic. Sometimes the best thing to do as the head coach is to just get out of the way."

Quotables – St. Cloud State graduate student outside hitter Linsey Rachel

"It's so amazing. Last year was amazing – it's just surreal to win it two years in a row. It's so fun to play with this team. You could tell we really played like a team today and played for each other."

On her red-hot start to the match… "Our distribution was pretty good, I was able to find holes in the blocks. They started getting a bigger block up so I had to vary my shots – Emma did a great job distributing the ball. Our middles were great terminating when they got set."

On the Huskies' mentality entering the match… "Going out with a lot of confidence in ourselves and our teammates – trusting that our teammates were going to make the plays. Having fun out there, smiling, celebrating other's successes. I'm so proud of my teammates."

"We're definitely going to celebrate it tonight with the selection show, but we have to look forward to the next game. The Regional is going to be super tough, and we have to bring the same confidence that we did this weekend."

Quotables – St. Cloud State junior outside hitter Kenzie Foley

"I was on top of the moon. Coming out we started pretty strong then ran into a dull moment – but in that fifth set when we got the big kill to tie it at 13 then getting the next two was huge. Getting a big block from Sam Zimmerman – we're back-to-back! We deserved it, we knew we didn't want to give any and's, if's or but's for putting us in the Regional – we did it."

On the decisive point of the fifth set… "My mouth dropped. I went immediately to my knees thinking we were going to dog pile right there, then got right back up before getting shoved over – it was fun! It always ends up that way anyway, running in and celebrating a big win."

On her incredible defensive performance… "I was very locked-in – coming into the match I wanted to be locked in on that. My hitting wasn't going great at the start of the match, but I just wanted to focus in on getting our setter into a position to give our hitters great balls to put away. Coming out and reading angles of approaches, never stopping until the ball hits the floor."

On the Huskies' mentality in the tournament… "We didn't want to give the Regional committee any and's, if's or but's about putting us in. We wanted to get the automatic bid, know we have a spot and allow our season to continue. At the end of the day, our mentality was, 'We're not done yet. We don't want to be done yet, so let's finish."

Notables

Linsey Rachel sent down 17 kills and added 13 digs for a double-double
Phebie Rossi hit .367 with 15 kills and two blocks
Sam Zimmerman sent home 13 kills on .400 hitting and posted two blocks
Kenzie Foley racked up a career-high 26 digs to go with nine kills and three blocks
Keely Kurschner was 53-for-54 on serve receive and added 10 digs
Emma Beran piled up 49 assists, terminated a pair of kills and posted three blocks
Makena Hollman recorded six kills on .333 hitting
Zimmerman, Rachel, Rossi and Foley each were named to the All-Tournament Team
St. Cloud State's serve receive was 89-for-93 on the night and went 201-for-208 in the tournament (.966)
SCSU is now 8-1 all-time in the NSIC Tournament under head coach Chad Braegelmann with two championships in three trips
The Huskies have earned their third-straight NCAA Tournament berth after appearances in 2019 and 2021

Up Next
The Huskies await the NCAA Selection Show results on Sunday evening to learn both who and where they will play in the Central Region Tournament.

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.