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

-On Thursday, December 5, the St. Cloud State volleyball team defeated the Ouachita Baptist Tigers 3 sets to 1 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Kenzie Foley led the way for St. Cloud State finishing with 28 kills.

The Tigers got out to an early lead in set 1 but the Huskies soon woke up and shrunk their deficit down to 1.  The Tigers kept the Huskies at bay until a service ace by Emma Berran gave the Huskies a 22-23 lead late in the first set.  The momentum from the Ace helped fuel a comeback from St. Cloud State and the Huskies moved on to win the first set 25-22.

Set 2 was tight right from the beginning with both teams swapping 1 point leads.  Three straight husky kills late in the set gave St. Cloud State a 3 point lead but the Tigers responded by tying the game up and soon went on to win set two 28-26.  Kenzie Foley then added 8 more kills in set 3 to help St. Cloud State earned the 25-17 win and go up 2 sets to 1.  Following up a win in set 3, the Huskies started strong in set four.  After Ouachita Baptist scored the first point of the Set, St. Cloud responded and didn’t look back.  The Huskies had the lead for the rest of the set and cruised their way to a 25-13 win in set 4 to defeat the Tigers 3 sets to 1.

St. Cloud State now advances in the NCAA Division 2 Volleyball Tournament to the round of 32 and will face off against Concordia St. Paul at 7:00 PM on Saturday, December 6th in Halenbeck Hall.

Photo Credit: Jacob Sanders.