No. 2 St. Cloud State Volleyball Defeats Sioux Falls in Straight Sets, Advances to NSIC Tournament Semifinals

Tuesday, November 19

St. Cloud, Minn.

6 p.m. CT

St. Cloud State

25-2,18-0NSIC

Sioux Falls

15-12,10-8NSIC

Sioux Falls

St. Cloud St.

The team celebrates the NSIC Tournament first round sweep of Sioux Falls on Tues., Nov. 20 at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud

Photo by: Nathaly Delgado

No. 2 St. Cloud State Volleyball Defeats Sioux Falls in Straight Sets, Advances to NSIC Tournament Semifinals

11/19/2024 11:08:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Tournament Central

Top-seeded Huskies sweep eight seed USF in 21st straight win, will host fifth-seeded Northern State on Saturday in semifinal match

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – No. 2 St. Cloud State Volleyball (25-2, 18-0 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) swept Sioux Falls (25-17, 25-22, 25-20) on Tuesday evening in a NSIC Tournament quarterfinal match at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud. The top-seeded Huskies will host the No. 5 seed Northern State in a semifinal match on Saturday at 5 p.m.

The Huskies led USF (15-12, 10-8 NSIC) in points (63-43), kills (51-38), hitting percentage (.357 – .235), aces (5-1), blocks (7-4) and assists (48-38). Each team recorded 43 digs.

TOP HUSKIES

Fifth year outside hitter Kenzie Foley (Sergeant Bluff, Iowa) – match-high 15 kills on .353 hitting, seven digs, four block assists and three assists.
Sophomore outside hitter/opposite Shelby Kimm (North Liberty, Iowa) – match-high 11 digs, nine kills on .421 hitting, and match-high three aces.
Redshirt junior middle blocker Ella Thompson (Lakeville, Minn.) – 13 kills on .370 hitting and a team-high one solo block
Junior setter Emma Berran (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) – match-high 39 assists, six kills on eight swings and five digs

QUOTABLE – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann
"I thought it was a really fun and complete team win tonight! Emma Berran did a fantastic job distributing the volleyball, as she had four hitters hit over .300 tonight and we hit over .350 as a team – I thought she put our hitters in really great spots to be successful. Defensively, I thought we struggled a little bit the first two sets to slow down Sioux Falls, but I thought we were much more locked in on that end in the third set. I was hoping we could serve a little bit tougher and get them out of system, as their two middles are both fantastic offensively – they hit high and with pace. I liked the defensive adjustments we made throughout the match, switching up our block lineups. It really helped that we got out to early leads in every set. Sioux Falls battled back and certainly challenged us in each of the three sets, but when push came to shove at the end, I thought our women did a great job of making plays to finish off the wins in each set."

NOTABLES

The Huskies move to 10-6 all-time against USF, picking up their seventh straight win over the Cougars. SCSU is now 6-2 all-time against Sioux Falls at Halenbeck Hall.
SCSU has won 21 straight matches including 10 wins over nationally ranked teams during that stretch – No. 4 Southwest Minnesota State (sweep), No. 6 Wayne State, No. 8 Concordia-St. Paul, No. 9 Concordia-St. Paul (sweep), No. 15 Minnesota Duluth (sweep), No. 20 Michigan Tech, No. 22 Northern State (sweep), No. 24 Minnesota Duluth (sweep), (RV) Minnesota State (sweep) and (RV) Minnesota State.
It is the first time SCSU has ever won 21 matches in a row. The previous longest streak of 17, was set in 2021.
All 16 of the Huskies' sweeps have come during the last 19 matches.
Foley led the match in kills and was one of two Huskies with 10 or more. Her seven digs ranked fourth on the Huskies and her four assists tied her career high.
Kimm led the Huskies in digs and tied for the match high. She also posted the third most kills for SCSU and led the match in assists. She has recorded double-digit digs in 13 matches this season.
Thompson was second on the Huskies in kills and recorded SCSU's lone solo block.
Berran led the match with 39 assists and tied her career high, sending down six kills.
Sophomore middle blocker Hannah Bruskiewicz (Rogers, Minn.) sent down eight kills on .375 hitting and tallied four block assists.
Senior libero Keely Kurschner (Maplewood, Minn.) posted nine digs and five assists.
Junior defensive specialist Emily Kern (Belgrade, Minn.) recorded eight digs.

UP NEXT
The Huskies continue their NSIC Tournament schedule on Saturday evening in a second round (semifinal) match against No. 18/five-seed Northern State (21-6, 12-6). Live coverage will be available on the NSIC Network (*note a paid subscription will be necessary) and live stats will be provided by SCSU. Links to each coverage option are available on the SCSU Volleyball schedule page.

SCSU is the highest seed remaining, so the final three matches of the tournament, semifinal one (SCSU vs. NSU) – Saturday at 5 p.m., semifinal two (CSP vs. WSC) – Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and championship (SCSU/NSU vs. CSP/WSC) – Sunday at 3 p.m. will be hosted at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud.

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