Freshmen Firepower Fuels No. 5 St. Cloud State Volleyball to Sixth Straight Win

Friday, September 8

Duluth, Minn.

9:30 A.M. CT

St. Cloud State

6-0,0-0NSIC

Southern New Hampshire

4-1,0-0NE10

St. Cloud St.

Southern N.H.

The Huskies celebrate a kill by freshman opposite Abby Wachal (R) during St. Cloud State's win over Southern New Hampshire on Sep. 8, 2023 at Romano Gymnasium

Freshmen Firepower Fuels No. 5 St. Cloud State Volleyball to Sixth Straight Win

9/8/2023 12:15:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Bruskiewicz, Kimm and Wachal each put down nine kills while hitting .368 or better in straight set win

DULUTH, Minn. – No. 5 St. Cloud State Volleyball (6-0, 0-0 NSIC) extended their season-opening winning streak to six straight matches by downing Southern New Hampshire (4-1, 0-0 NE10) in straight sets on Friday morning at Romano Gymnasium, taking the match 25-11, 25-19 and 25-17. The Huskies offense hit an incredible .340 while holding the Penmen to just 24 kills and a .127 hitting percentage, leaning on talented true freshmen middle blocker Hannah Bruskiewicz, outside hitter Shelby Kimm and opposite Abby Wachal on the attacking end.

Wachal led all players by hitting .615 with nine kills, seven digs and an ace while adding one block. Bruskiewicz helped take the attention off her freshmen pins by sending down nine kills on .368 hitting to go with three blocks. Kimm also posted nine kills, hitting .389 alongside seven digs while matching her career best with three aces – recording her third match with three. Fellow freshman defensive specialist Annika Forbes continued her terrific work at the service line, consistently keeping SNHU out of system.

Fresh off recording her 1,000^th career kill in Friday's tournament opener, senior outside hitter Kenzie Foley led all players with 14 kills on .500 hitting, posting a kill percentage of .636 on 22 swings. Foley added seven digs, two assists, a block and an ace to her stellar line. Junior libero Keely Kurschner impressed in limited time on the court as the Huskies tested their depth, recording eight digs and four assists with a season-high three aces.

St. Cloud State's serve-and-pass game was spectacular all morning, acing Southern New Hampshire a season-high eight times while allowing just one opponent ace for the second straight match. The Huskies missed just five serves despite serving aggressively throughout the match, adding a terrific .977 in serve receive.

Foley and Bruskiewicz each put away five kills, hitting a combined .833 as the former terminated all five of her swings while the latter went 5-0-7. Sophomore setter Emma Berran kept the offense cooking with 18 kills and just three errors, hitting .517 as a club in the set. Wachal and Kimm both added four kills as SCSU took the set 25-11.

Five aces in the second set – two from Kurschner and one each courtesy of Foley, Wachal and Kimm – helped the Huskies take a 25-19 win in the frame. Senior setter Allena Shimon gave Berran a break midway through the set and saw her hitters convert five kills on nine sets, posting a .556 assist percentage. Bruskiewicz and Foley each sent down four kills while Kimm hit .600 with three.

The Huskies defense ramped up their pressure in the final frame, recording three blocks while forcing the Penmen into eight errors with just six kills – producing a disastrous -.069 hitting percentage as SCSU took the match 25-17. Sophomore middle blocker Emilie Planert led the way with two blocks with one each courtesy of Shimon, Bruskiewicz and Kimm. Wachal dug out five swings in the set while Foley posted five kills to close things out.

QUOTABLES – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann

"Southern New Hampshire has a new coach, and they did a nice job battling today. We played a team that played in the Elite Eight last year, and I thought we both battled well and stayed consistent today. One of our goals is limiting errors – we did a great job in the first set, not quite as clean in the second and the third we were pretty average. Overall it was a fun match, and we got a lot of women opportunities out there as well – great to see different lineups out on the court."

On Bruskiewicz, Kimm and Wachal combining for 27 kills… "All three ended up with nine kills – when your freshmen can average three kills a set, you can be pretty competitive and build those numbers up. They did a nice job offensively. We've been focused on getting them all comfortable with our system, our tempo, spacing – trying to figure some things out that way. We did a good job of forcing them a little bit – Kenzie was good as well, our hitters were solid today."

On bouncing back to an afternoon tilt with Michigan Tech… "A couple things – you want to make sure everybody gets some recovery, food, water. Michigan Tech is a pretty darn good team, they put some pressure defensively on opponents. They're going to play scrappy, they're going to play tough every time we play them – it should be a good match."

QUOTABLES – St. Cloud State freshman opposite Abby Wachal

On her terrific efficiency… "The communication from my back row really helped out. Our middle was holding the block really well, which left me with singles and a lot of open court."

On playing with plenty of underclassmen on the court for long spurts… "It's amazing to see your future teammates out there and know this is the start – but we have so many more years together to get better. We have really good role models on the team to show us how to do it."

On the Huskies' 6-0 start… "We have a baseline now, so we can see what we're really capable of. We have a great outline of practice in what we need to work on. The future of this program is going to skyrocket, and I see us back in the NCAA Tournament."

NOTABLES

Kenzie Foley led all scorers with 14 kills on .500 hitting to go with seven digs, two assists, an ace and a block
Abby Wachal hit an incredible .615 with nine kills on 13 swings while adding seven digs, a block and an ace
Hannah Bruskiewicz matched her career bests with nine kills and three blocks on .368 hitting
Shelby Kimm scored a career-high 12.5 points on nine kills, three aces and a block while hitting .389 with seven digs
Kimm has scored three aces in a match three times this season, doing so in three of her past four matches
Keely Kurschner dug out eight swings with four assists and a season-high three aces
Emma Berran converted her sets at a .481 clip with 26 assists and a kill
Allena Shimon converted her sets at a .471 clip and produced a season-high eight assists with one block
Emilie Planert matched her career high with two kills and added a career best two blocks
Ella Unterweger made her season debut and recorded a kill on .333 hitting
Maddie MacTaggart made her season debut and posted two kills with one dig
St. Cloud State has been aced just once in each of their last two matches
The Huskies' eight aces are a season-high
SCSU outkilled Southern New Hampshire 47-24 and outhit them .340 to .127
Through their first six matches, the Huskies have held their opponents to hit no better than .135 in a single match
With just 24 kills allowed, SCSU has held their opponents under 30 kills for the fourth time in six matches and has allowed less than 10 kills per set in five of six

UP NEXT
The Huskies face Michigan Tech later this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. CT. The match will be broadcast on the NSIC Network with live stats provided by Minnesota Duluth. Links to each coverage option are available on the SCSU Volleyball schedule page.

Single match and season ticket information can be found on 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.