No. 8 Huskies sweep Beavers on Senior Night

Friday, November 4

St. Cloud, Minn.

6:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

22-5,14-5NSIC

Minot State

1-25,1-18NSIC

Minot St.

St. Cloud St.

Photo by: Thomas Breach

11/4/2022 9:50:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

SCSU scores 16 aces and hits .372 in emphatic straight-set win over Minot State

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – No. 8 St. Cloud State Volleyball scored a season-high 16 aces and hit .372 to take straight sets from Minot State on Friday evening at Halenbeck Hall, earning the win on Senior Night.

The Huskies' 16 aces are the most they have had in a match since they recorded a program-record 19 against Upper Iowa on August 28, 2004 – at that time sets were still played to 30 points. 16 aces in the 25-point set era establishes a new Huskies program mark.

Keely Kurschner (5) and Phebie Rossi (4) tied their career marks while Emma Berran (3) and Maddie MacTaggart (2) each set new career-highs in aces as the Huskies kept Minot State out of system all night, outkilling them 40-22.

Linsey Rachel had 13 kills – moving her nine away from breaking the program's career mark – while Kenzie Foley put down 10 on .600 hitting. Rossi had eight kills and three blocks while hitting .615 alongside a 5-0-10 (.500) line from Makena Hollman as the Huskies found efficiency running their offense through Rachel.

Emma Berran dished out 31 assists while directing the offense to hit .372. Kurschner added a team-high 12 digs to anchor the defense.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann

"When you have an outside hitter getting a bunch of swings like Linsey had tonight, they key on her a bit. That really opens up the net. You saw Makena and Phebie especially benefit from that, but even Kenzie – she was swinging great in the front row, even had a couple of swings in the back row that scored. They all did a really nice job. Sam blocking-wise did a great job, she had some great swings. It was a nice performance – when you hit .372, you're going to win a lot of matches."

On the Huskies' 16 aces… "I'll take 16 aces and six errors every single match for the rest of my life – I'd be ecstatic with that. The women have been working on being really intentional, sidelines, deep, serving toes and mixing up their serves a little bit. Sometimes we look at serves – like in high school – with a 'get them in' mentality, and we' can't have that in college. That's your first chance to point score and you have to do a good job there. From that aspect we need to be a little more aggressive, and I think we saw tonight a glimpse of what we can do when we are aggressive at the line."

On utilizing the Huskies' depth… "You hope throughout the course of the season that everyone's going to be healthy, but that's just not the way it goes. You're trying to make sure the players who are 'next in line' are ready and prepared. The way you do that is by giving them repetition and putting them in situations when they're in match play. You can kind of simulate that in practice, but nothing compares to the experience of a match. I thought our women who had their chances did a nice job again."

Reflecting on Senior Night… "Before this group got here, we really hadn't had a ton of success. I think some great groundwork had been laid by some of the women that came before them – you go back to my first year's freshmen, Micah Nier was one of them, kids like Abby Templin, Clara Krenz, Marah Mulso, Halle Hughes. They set a standard and a work ethic. I'll never forget Halle Hughes coming into the gym hot from a class with an hour, and she'd work harder than anyone for that hour. That kind of mentality has helped us to take that next step. As we get more players who have had more success in high school, who have the kind of athleticism that can help us in this league, it's been a great credit to the young women – both those before them, and the ones we got to honor tonight."

Notables

The Huskies' 16 aces set a new 25-point set era record and are the most in a match since Aug. 28, 2004
Linsey Rachel sent home 13 kills and added nine digs
Rachel is nine kills away from breaking Cami Selbitschka's all-time program record of 1567
Kenzie Foley hit .600 with 10 kills and seven digs
Phebie Rossi provided eight kills on .615 hitting, four aces and three blocks
Keely Kurschner had five aces and 12 digs
Makena Hollman hit .500 with five kills on 10 swings
SCSU is now 35-5 at Halenbeck Hall since 2019 and has won 38 of their last 43 home matches dating back to the end of 2018

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.