By Carl Goenner / Sports Director / @Carl_Goenner / St. Cloud Minn.

-On December 6th, 2024 the St. Cloud State volleyball team defeated the Concordia St. Paul Golden Bears to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.  The 3-1 win was fueled by a 16 kill night from St. Cloud’s Hannah Bruskiewicz.  This was the fourth time St. Cloud State defeated Concordia St. Paul this season.  

After giving up the first point in set 1, the Huskies took advantage of several Concordia mistakes and tipped the game in their favor.  A service Ace from Annika Forbes then helped St. Cloud State got out to an 8-6 lead.  The offense then started cooking and the Huskies spread the ball around getting kills from several players.  A massive Ella Thompson kill then gave the Huskies an 18-14 lead.  Concordia St. Paul then cleaned things up and with the help of 3 service aces, took a 23-20 lead. The Huskies tallied several more points but a service error from Kenzie Foley was the 25th point for the Golden Bears and they won the first set 25-23.

St. Cloud State entered set two on a mission and after a service error from Teagan Starkey on the opening serve, the wheels just started to turn for the Huskies.   Soon the Huskies had a 10 -3 lead and continued to get offensive production from a variety of players.   A second service error from Annika Forbes helped St. Cloud State secured the momentum and after surviving some errors and adding some more kills, they had a 20-12 lead.  Hannah Bruskiewicz then added a couple more kills and Sam Zimmerman scored the final point of the set to help the Huskies win set two, 25-18.

Set number three started very close but St. Cloud pulled away and after another service ace from Annika Forbes, the Huskies had an 11-5 advantage. Both teams then had several errors and with some crucial plays by Kenzie Foley and a huge kill from the setter Emma Berran, St. Cloud State soon had an 8 point lead.  The two teams swapped errors and as the lead and soon the Huskies moved on to win the third set 25-16.

Hannah Bruskiewicz was on fire at the start the fourth set helping the Huskies take the momentum early on.  A service error by Concordia’s Cassie Seiling gave St. Cloud State a 10-4 lead, but the Golden Bears then woke up.   Concordia scored five of the next seven points and they were soon only down by 4.  St. Cloud State stayed strong, and with back to back kills by Shelby Kimm, they extended their lead again. Kenzie Foley was the one to land the deciding kill to give the Huskies a 25-20 win to finish off the Golden Bears 3 sets to 1.

Next Up:  St. Cloud State advances to the Sweet Sixteen and will face off against the University of Central Oklahoma at 4:00 PM on Saturday, December 7 for a chance to go to the Elite Eight.

Photo Credit: Nick Monaghan.