Freshmen shine as No. 8 Huskies sweep Barton

Friday, September 2

West Palm Beach, Fla.

1:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

5-0,0-0NSIC

Barton

1-4,0-0Conference Carolinas

Barton

St. Cloud St.

Photo by: Kaitlyn Zuehl

9/2/2022 3:45:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

SCSU piles up 12 aces as MacTaggart, Zimmerman and Unterweger combine for 22 kills

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – No. 8 St. Cloud State Volleyball took their first match of the Hyatt Place Bash at the Beach in straight sets over Barton. After a dominating 25-8 win in the opening set, the Huskies leaned on their second unit to finish things off.

SCSU hit a ridiculous .882 in the first set, terminating 15 kills on 17 swings. Phebie Rossi was a perfect 5-for-5 while Kenzie Foley put away three kills on four attacks. Emma Berran had 11 assists in the first, keeping her hitters locked into advantage situations.

After the first set, St. Cloud State retooled their lineup to feature their freshman corps – Maddie MacTaggart led the team with nine kills on .238 hitting while Ella Unterweger hit .364 with six kills in her collegiate debut. Sam Zimmerman took a large share of the swings from the middle, posting seven kills.

Turning Point
The Huskies leaned on their stellar service work to keep Barton out of system, scoring a season-high 12 aces. Rachel Houle had four while Keely Kurschner and Emily Kern set career-highs with four and three respectively.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann

"A fun match for us today! We had the opportunity to play the bulk of our roster. Overall, I thought we had some great opportunities to get our younger women some playing time. Emilie Planert got into her first college set, Maddie MacTaggart played in all three and performed well – especially in the first set. We have to be a little bit better on defense as a unit, limit some errors in crucial moments. Overall, a good performance and I'm very proud of our women."

On the freshmen's strong showings… "It was good. They were able to play together as a group, which they often do in practice, and that consistency helped them. They didn't have to do too much – just go out there and focus on what they had to do, controlling the ball. I thought we did a good job of putting them into positions in which they could be successful."

On the stellar work on the service line… "We continued to focus on serving aggressively. We spend a lot of time in practice serving aggressive, serving toes – there was one point in today's match where Keely Kurschner served a nice deep ball and got them out of system. I came right back to her and asked her, 'hey, I want you to serve right at her toes.' The defender didn't even move, Keely got an ace and she's grinning ear to ear. Seeing that, executing what we ask them to do, it's been really fun to watch. We always want to be aggressive. It gets way easier to defend a team when they're passing the ball 10, 20 feet off the net. That has been a key to our success."

Notables

Ella Unterweger hit .364 with six kills in her collegiate debut
Maddie MacTaggart added a career-high nine kills to lead SCSU scorers
Phebie Rossi had five kills on five swings while Makena Hollman hit .600 with four kills
Allena Shimon provided a career-high 18 assists with one ace
Emilie Planert made her collegiate debut and had a pair of kills
Rachel Houle (4), Keely Kurschner (4), Emily Kern (3) and Shimon (1) combined for 12 aces
The Huskies' 12 aces were a season-high, marking the second time SCSU has scored 10+ times from the service line this year – SCSU had just three such occurrences last season
SCSU outhit Barton .329 to .116, holding the Bulldogs to just 21 kills
With a 12:1 differential in the match, SCSU has 40 aces to their opponents' eight this 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.