ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Minnesota State women's volleyball (8-1) fell to the #12 St. Cloud State Huskies (6-2) on Thursday night, 3-1. Despite the Mavericks' 12 blocks, SCSU had three players finish with 14 or more kills in the match.
 
A pair of kills from Toryn Richards and Emma Loveall put the Mavericks up 5-3 early in the opening set. The Huskies pushed back and took an 11-9 lead after a 5-2 run. Kiya Durant and Avery Klein combined for a block to tie the set up at 12-12 and an attack error gave Minnesota State a slight lead. Those two blocked another SCSU shot, putting the Mavericks up 15-13.
 
Minnesota State went on a 3-1 run, capped off by a kill from NSIC Defensive Player of the Week Emily Kern, which made the score 19-16. St. Cloud State followed that with a lightning-fast 5-0 run that put the Huskies up 21-19. Despite their best efforts, the Mavericks couldn't quite recover from the run. St. Cloud State won the first set 25-23. Minnesota State hit .345 in set one, but former AVCA DII National Player of the Year Kenzie Foley had five kills in the set to push the Huskies over the top.
 
The Mavericks jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in the second set, thanks to a kill from Kern and a block from Avery Rosenberg and Durant. Three points later, the Huskies had taken the lead back on a block by Foley and Hannah Bruskiewicz. Both of those players also had back-to-back kills which put St. Cloud State up 6-3 after another powerful 5-0 run that forced a Maverick timeout.
 
The Huskies came out of the timeout with three more kills to put the score at 9-3 before Minnesota State ended their run with a kill from Durant. Immediately following, Bruskiewicz hit two more kills over the net that made Minnesota State call its second timeout of the set. Richards had a kill out of the break, followed up by a solo block from Loveall to put the Maverick deficit at five.
 
The two teams traded scores back-and-forth until the Huskies went up 20-10 on a block from Bruskiewicz and Emma Berran. Minnesota State pushed back with a 4-1 run but St. Cloud State won the set 25-15. SCSU had 20 kills in the second set and hit .349.
 
After falling behind early in the third set, the Mavericks came back and took a 5-4 lead off a kill by Klein. After some volley scoring between the two teams, MSU went on a 5-1 run to take a 12-9 lead thanks to two consecutive blocks from Kern and Rosenberg which forced the Huskies bench to take a timeout.
 
Despite a 4-1 St. Cloud State run off of three kills from Foley, a Durant-Klein block up at the net maintained the Minnesota State lead. A kill from Loveall led to another timeout from SCSU. The Mavericks went on a 4-2 run out of the Huskies' second break of the set to put the team up five. SCSU forced a Minnesota State timeout after a 4-1 run that made the score 23-21.
 
Foley had a kill out of the timeout to cut the Maverick lead to one, but Rosenberg smashed a kill over the net to force a set-point and Richards connected with freshman setter Jadyn Lester for a kill to give Minnesota State a 25-22 win in set three. The Huskies finished the set with a hitting percentage of just .119 as the team had nine attack errors in set three.
 
Set four was close to start, with a Loveall kill tying the score at 3-3. The Huskies followed that up with a 5-0 run to jump out to a 8-3 lead. A solo block from Berran caused MSU to take its first timeout of the set as the Huskies went up by six.
 
A service error and a bad set for SCSU ended the run and helped the Mavericks cut into its lead. Durant blocked a shot from Bruskiewicz all by herself to cut the Husky lead to four. The two teams traded scores and possession at the service line until the score was 15-9 thanks to two blocks from Ella Thompson. Kern and Rosenberg returned the favor with a block, but the Huskies scored eight-straight points to make the score 23-11. Despite a 4-1 Minnesota State push, St. Cloud State was able to close out the match, taking the final set 25-15.
 
Loveall led the team with eight kills and also had a solo block. Richards and Kern each had seven kills. Richards ended the match with a team-high 13 digs and Kern had three block assists. Rosenberg and Durant each finished with six block assists and a solo block each. Rosenberg also had six kills. Brooke Bolwerk had 17 assists and Lester finished with 12.
 
Foley led the Huskies with 19 kills and two total blocks in the match. Thompson and Bruskiewicz combined for 31 kills, with Thompson hitting .375 in the match. St. Cloud State played the serve just about perfectly against Minnesota State, not allowing the Mavericks to tally a single service ace.
 
"We played two solid sets and struggled to stay disciplined in the other two," said Mavericks head coach Corey Phelps. "There are some great lessons to take away from this match that we will use moving forward. We will be better prepared when we face [St. Cloud State] again at home later in the year."
 
Minnesota State plays two matches at home next weekend. The Mavericks play Minnesota Crookston (3-5) on Friday, September 27 at 6 p.m. in the Taylor Center. Then, Winona State (7-3) will travel to Mankato to play MSU at 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 28.