Linsey Rachel breaks career kill record, No. 8 SCSU sweeps Mary

Saturday, November 5

St. Cloud, Minn.

3:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

23-5,15-5NSIC

Mary

6-22,5-15NSIC

Mary

St. Cloud St.

Photo by: Thomas Breach

Linsey Rachel breaks career kill record, No. 8 SCSU sweeps Mary

11/5/2022 9:50:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

St. Cloud State to face SMSU in NSIC Tournament Quarterfinal next Friday

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Graduate student outside hitter Linsey Rachel recorded career kill No. 1568 to break St. Cloud State's all-time mark – one that has stood 26 years – as she and the No. 8 Huskies closed the regular season with a sweep of Mary at Halenbeck Hall on Saturday afternoon.

The Huskies' captain and two-time All-American needed nine kills to break Cami Selbitschka's career mark of 1567 set in 1996, putting down the record-breaking kill early in the second set. Rachel used a vintage swing from the strongside pin, going crosscourt to shallow five for kill No. 1568.

Rachel finished with 10 kills, 15 digs and four aces on her historic night. Kenzie Foley hit .357 with 13 kills and seven digs while Phebie Rossi added 10 kills on .421 hitting. Sam Zimmerman enjoyed a terrific performance in the middle, hitting .750 on 9-0-12 with four blocks.

Emma Berran picked her spots well, piling up 38 assists and directing the offense to hit .377 with 54 kills. Makena Hollman rounded out the offense with seven kills on .500 hitting.

Keely Kurschner anchored the defense with 15 digs while adding a pair of aces.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann

Reflecting on Linsey Rachel's record-breaking moment… "That was a lot of fun. Marci and I were chatting on the bench, and she said it's just pretty incredible. A young lady comes in and does this for four years, helps turn a program around – with a lot of other good players as well – she's the model of consistency. Takes care of her body, makes good decisions, is a really great teammate, just checks a lot of boxes. She's been really fun to coach and work with. She's very low maintenance. Sometimes you get players who are a little selfish out there, but Linsey is just the opposite of that. She hardly ever asks for anything – just a fantastic athlete."

"The team we faced tonight just wasn't putting as much pace on the ball when they hit – it was a lot more offspeed stuff, that was a bit of a challenge. We hadn't seen a lot of that stuff recently having played a stretch of Northern, Duluth, Concordia, Southwest – so it was good for us to see some of that. Now we have to gear up for teams that are going to swing a little bit harder, attack the block some more. I thought Mary did a good job of hitting around our blockers, so it was a little different team out there that way."

"If we can put up numbers similar to this in the conference tournament, we'll be very successful. If we hit .300 three matches in a row, block a little bit and play some defense, we can put ourselves in a position to be very successful. We have to be efficient, we have to put good swings on the ball and limit errors – that was key for us tonight. If you make teams have to score 18 points a set at this level, that becomes very difficult. We have to be a little cleaner, make better decisions, cover a little bit better so our hitters can attack the block but overall, a pretty good job."

Looking ahead to the conference tournament… "Some of is to just keep doing what we're doing. We're trending in the right direction – limiting errors, decisions we're making, keeping balls in play. We've had some hitters and servers who at times have made errors in bad spots – I thought we looked much better in that regard this weekend, putting ourselves in better positions that way."

Notables

Linsey Rachel broke Cami Selbitschka's career kill record with No. 1568, putting away 10 kills with 15 digs and four aces on the night
Rachel also ranks third all-time in points and fourth all-time in digs, standing 20 digs shy of joining the 1500x1500 club
Kenzie Foley hit .357 with 13 kills, seven digs and two aces
Phebie Rossi hit .421 with 10 kills
Sam Zimmerman sent down nine kills on .750 hitting with a match-high four blocks
Emma Berran piled up 38 assists to go with a pair of kills and five digs
Makena Hollman had seven kills and two blocks on .500 hitting
Keely Kurschner dug out 15 swings and had two aces
Allena Shimon dished out eight assists with four digs
Natalie Tesch, Emilie Planert and Maddie MacTaggart each had a kill
SCSU is now 36-5 at Halenbeck Hall since 2019 and has won 39 of their last 44 home matches dating back to the end of 2018

Up Next
St. Cloud State will enter the 2022 NSIC Tournament as the No. 5 seed, matching up with Southwest Minnesota State on Friday, November 11 at 5:00 p.m. CT at the Ganglehoff Center in St. Paul.

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.