ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State edged Oklahoma Baptist in the first set before winning the next pair in convincing fashion on Thursday night, winning 3-0 over the Bison. It was the season opener for both schools.
Tomorrow, the green and gold will look to rebound with a contest against Minnesota Duluth at 3 p.m.
Leading the Bison on the offensive front was
Taneyah Brown and
Avery Hellmuth who tallied eight and six kills, respectively.
Abrey Galt, a freshman, notched 17 assists while classmate
Rylee Martin added 10. Defensively,
Maci Langford recorded a career-high eight digs while Brown added seven and Martin, six.
The first set of the season showed some mental toughness from OBU. Down 18-12, the green and gold rallied and tied things at 19 after redshirt freshman
Jill Leslie's ace. Included in that stretch were a block assist from Hellmuth and freshman Jh-kyah Head and kill by Brown.
Later, with things tied at 21, the hosts scored the next two before OBU had another opportunity to tie. A digged ball came over to the Bison's side, however, an attack error from right in front of the net pushed the Huskies up 24-22. SCSU would eventually win 25-23.
Second-set action saw the Huskies control things on the offensive end. In fact, they hit .552 with no errors. Conversely, the Bison connected on .222 of their attacks. Action swayed in favor of the hosts with a 6-0 stretch. With the score tied at 13 following a kill by Brown, the Huskies got four kills from four different players and a pair of errors by OBU. By the end of the set, it was 25-16.
In the third, a fast start diminished OBU's chances of keeping the match alive. St. Cloud State scored seven of the first eight points capped off by an ace from Kenzie Foley. The closest OBU got the rest of the way was three points on two occasions.
