No. 8 St. Cloud State Volleyball Sweeps No. 4 Southwest Minnesota State to Extend Win Streak to Eight

Saturday, October 5

St. Cloud, Minn.

2 p.m. CT

St. Cloud State

12-2,6-0NSIC

Southwest Minnesota State

14-1,5-1NSIC

Southwest Minn. St.

St. Cloud St.

The team celebrates upsetting No. 4 Southwest Minnesota State in a straight set sweep at Halenbeck Hall on October 5, 2024

Photo by: Justyce Porter

No. 8 St. Cloud State Volleyball Sweeps No. 4 Southwest Minnesota State to Extend Win Streak to Eight

10/5/2024 6:02:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Huskies hand SMSU first loss of the season, remain perfect in Northern Sun play

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – No. 8 St. Cloud State Volleyball (12-2, 6-0 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) beat No. 4 Southwest Minnesota State straight sets (25-20, 25-19, 25-23) on Saturday afternoon at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud. The Huskies have now won their last eight matches in a row and have swept five of those eight matches.

SCSU handed the Mustangs (14-1, 5-1 NSIC) their first loss of the season after leading the match in points (63-52), kills (48-39), blocks (11-9), assists (42-37) and digs (62-55). The teams tied in service aces with four apiece.

TOP HUSKIES

Redshirt junior Ella Thompson (Lakeville, Minn.) – match-high 20 kills (.486 hitting) and six block assists. Scored a career-high 24.0 points.
Senior libero Keely Kurschner (Maplewood, Minn.) – match-high 23 digs
Junior setter Emma Berran (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) – 41 assists and six digs
Fifth year outside hitter Kenzie Foley (Sergeant Bluff, Iowa) – nine kills and eight digs
Sophomore outside hitter Shelby Kimm (North Liberty, Iowa) – 11 digs, seven kills and two aces
Sophomore middle blocker Hannah Bruskiewicz (Rogers, Minn.) – eight kills and two solo blocks
Freshman defensive specialist Laurin Hamann (Manitowoc, Wis.) – nine digs

QUOTABLE – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann
"I was really proud of our team's effort tonight. Ella [Thompson] was fantastic offensively and blocking – 20 kills for a middle in just three sets is crazy good. Our defense did a great job limiting Southwest's offense – I thought our blockers did a good job setting up the block and getting quality block touches and our diggers were able to defend behind them. We were fantastic from the service line – we had zero service errors and we matched them ace for ace. Keely [Kurschner] was great in the back row defending and we did enough offensively to beat a very talented Southwest [Minnesota State] team."

NOTABLES

SCSU is now 27-28 all-time against Southwest Minnesota State.
SCSU has won seven eight matches with wins over No. 4 Southwest Minnesota State (sweep), No. 9 Concordia-St. Paul (sweep), No. 15 Minnesota Duluth (sweep), No. 20 Michigan Tech and (RV) Minnesota State.
It is the first time SCSU has won eight matches in a row this season. In 2022, the Huskies strung together win streaks of nine and 12 matches.
All five of SCSU's sweeps this season have come during the eight-match win streak.
Thompson led the match in kills and tied for the match lead in block assists, posting a season-high six. She tied her career high in kills (20) while scoring a new career best 24.0 points. It was her ninth 10+ kill match and second 20 kill match of 2024.
Kurschner led the match in digs (23), tying her career high. She has posted 20+ digs four times this season and 13 times in her career.
Berran led the match in assists (41).
Foley's streak of consecutive 10+ kill matches ends at 47 (11/18/2022). She needs just one more double-digit kill match to break the program record for most career double-digit kill matches.
Kimm tied her season high with 11 digs.
Bruskiewicz tied her career high with two solo blocks.

UP NEXT
The Huskies hit the road next weekend for a pair of conference matches. SCSU plays at Augustana (9-6, 5-1 NSIC) on Friday, Oct. 11 and at No. 6 Wayne State (12-2, 6-0 NSIC) on Saturday, Oct. 12. First serve for the Augie match is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT from the Elmen Center in Sioux Falls, S.D. and Saturday's match against WSC is slated for 1 p.m. CT from Rice Arena in Wayne, Neb. Links to each coverage option will be available on the SCSU Volleyball schedule page.

For all the latest on St. Cloud State Volleyball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.