No. 7 Huskies season comes to close in Sweet 16

Sunday, November 20

Wayne, Neb.

4:00 p.m. CT

St. Cloud State

28-6,15-5NSIC

Concordia-St. Paul

29-5,17-3NSIC

St. Cloud St.

Concordia-St. Paul

11/20/2022 9:00:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

St. Cloud State ends 2022 campaign 28-6, earning deepest NCAA Tournament run since 1995

WAYNE, Neb. – No. 7 St. Cloud State Volleyball closed their 2022 campaign in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, falling to No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul in a heartbreaking five-set thriller at Rice Auditorium in Wayne. The Huskies finished runner-up at the Central Region Tournament, embarking on their deepest NCAA run since a 1995 Elite 8 appearance.

St. Cloud State's 28 wins in 2022 are the program's most since winning 29 matches in 1986.

Kenzie Foley led SCSU with 21 kills and 14 digs, adding a pair of blocks and two aces as she hit .292. Linsey Rachel double-doubled with 13 kills and 12 digs, scoring once from the service line. Phebie Rossi sent down 12 kills and provided three blocks while Sam Zimmerman joined the trio in double figures with 10 kills and three blocks on .348 hitting.

Keely Kurschner had 12 digs and set a new career-high with seven assists. Emma Berran dished out 44 assists to go with six kills while Emily Kern posted nine digs and an ace.

The Huskies burst out of the gates strong, taking the first two sets 26-24 and 25-17 while hitting .415 with 31 kills. Concordia-St. Paul bounced back at the service line to keep the Huskies out of system in the final three frames as SCSU terminated just 28 kills total and committed 16 attacking errors to hit .129 the rest of the way. SCSU continued to battle with the Golden Bears all the way to the end, taking off on a 8-0 run to lead 11-7 in the fifth set before Concordia regained their footing and took the decisive game 15-13.

Foley, Rachel and Rossi were each named to the Central Region All-Tournament Team.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann

"I don't think you can get any closer than 15-13 in the fifth set. We had a great battle with them last Sunday and came out ahead – today I thought we played really clean in the first two sets and made them pretty uncomfortable. There's a reason why that team has won a bunch of national championships and has made a bunch of regional finals – I think their experience showed a little bit in the end – but boy, I thought we put ourselves in a great position up 11-7 in the fifth. We had opportunities but just couldn't make plays. A couple micro-touches in the end were the difference."

"We did a fantastic job in serve receive and made them really uncomfortable – our servers were putting them in some bad spots. Most teams get a lot easier to defend when the ball is passed 10 to 15 feet off the net, and that was the case for us in those first two sets. We limited our errors and put some pressure on them. In sets three and four they served a little tougher, we were a little more tentative in serve receive and made a couple too many errors. That was the difference in the end."

"We've got some fantastic women graduating. Rachel Houle and Linsey Rachel came back for their fifth year, they've been just fantastic role models, mentors for our young women and certainly great volleyball players. Rachel fought back from a pretty bad ankle injury and was fantastic for us. Makena Hollman only in her third year, she was great for us this year as well. Phebie Rossi has been so fantastic. Her growth as a young woman has been fun to watch. Linsey Rachel – you know all the superlatives are true. 'Linsey is good' is what our team says all the time. We're going to miss them."

Notables

Kenzie Foley double-doubled with 21 kills and 14 digs on .292 hitting, adding two aces and a pair of digs
Foley averaged 4.42 kills/set, 4.25 digs/set and 4.92 points/set on .278 hitting in the 2022 postseason
Linsey Rachel provided a 13-kill, 12-dig double-double in her final match as a Husky
Rachel closes her career as the program's all-time leader in kills (1657), attack attempts (4261) and sets played (443) while ranking second in points scored (1849.5), fourth in digs (1568) and seventh in matches played (123)
Phebie Rossi provided 12 kills and three blocks, hitting .273
Rossi ranks third in career hitting percentage (.345), fourth in blocks (413) and block assists (344) while ranking seventh in solo blocks (28)
Sam Zimmerman put down 10 kills on .348 hitting with three blocks
Zimmerman enjoyed a strong 2022 postseason, hitting .308 with 2.21 kills/set
Emma Berran dished out 44 assists, closing her debut postseason averaging just under 12 assists/set
Keely Kurschner dug out 12 swings and assisted on a career-most seven kills
Emily Kern had nine digs and one ace
St. Cloud State is now 4-8 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 14-18 all-time including AIAW national play
The Huskies are now 10-4 in postseason play under head coach Chad Braegelmann and 2-3 in NCAA Tournament competition
2022 marked the deepest St. Cloud State run in the NCAA Tournament since 1995
Closing their season at 28-6, the Huskies earned the most wins in the Braegelmann era as well as the most since their 29-win 1986 season

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.