Northern State was a few points away from leveling the match, but instead walked away empty handed at Wachs Arena Friday night.

The Wolves were swept by third-rated St. Cloud State 25-21, 25-23, 25-20 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference volleyball action.

After losing the opening set, Northern pushed the Huskies the whole second set with the scored tied 16 different times. St. Cloud was clinging to a 21-20 lead and managed to stay at least one point ahead on the way to closing out the pivotal set for a two-set advantage.

“We talk about that a lot, once we get to 20-20, that’s when we have to execute and that’s been kind of struggle this season,” said Northern’s Hanna Thompson, “so we’ll continue to work on it, and hopefully by postseason we’ll have it figured out.”

As expected, NCAA Division II Player of the Year Kenzie Foley played a key role in the match. The St. Cloud standout had a kill and an ace late in set two, on the way to finishing with a match-high 16 kills and a pair of aces.

“St. Cloud is a very good team. They’re very balanced,” Thompson said. “Kinzey Foley is amazing. She is the National Player of the Year, so it’s always fun to play against her. It’s fun to play against a good team.”

Once St. Cloud State had secured the second set, the Huskies raced out to a 7-1 lead in the third set and held off a late Northern rally to close out the sweep.

“It all comes down to killing the volleyball and they have 15 more kills than us,” said Northern coach Brent Aldridge. “You give us half those, we win a set, but that’s volleyball.”

While Foley led St. Cloud in hitting, the Huskies also had two other players in double digit kills. Aldridge said a having a player like Foley impacts those around her.

“When you have a player the caliber of Foley, the focus also is on Foley,” Aldridge said, “and some of those peripheral kids also maybe get free government cheese off of Foley, so to speak.”

The Huskies, who have lost just two matches all season, play the game at a different pace, cutting down the reaction times, according to Thompson.

“They serve super aggressive so their serves are coming in hard,” Thompson said, “and obviously as you can tell they hit very hard. The ball is coming fast.”

Thompson did her part to help keep the Wolves in the match. The senior from Victoria, Minn., led the squad with 15 kills on the night.

“We needed about 25 from her, because we had other positions not handle their business,” Aldridge said. “That’s going to happen. That’s the game of volleyball.”

Northern setter Kerri Walker recorded her 4,000th career assist during the contest and finished with 28 on the evening.

While the Wolves came up short in their quest to take down one of the top team’s in the country, they battled to the end, cutting a 10-point deficit in half down the stretch of the final set before finally succumbing.

“We’re a nice volleyball team. It comes down to, you get stuck in one rotation, you burn your subs, you burn your timeouts, there’s no slowing it down once it’s started,” Aldridge said. “Now, we made a nice comeback. That’s one thing I thought in set three we actually showed a little grit and kind of came back, but …. all good teams in the NSIC, you can’t get down 6-8 points. Your side out would just have to be astronomical.”

Northern, 14-5 on the season and 6-5 in conference play, hosts 25th-ranked Minnesota-Duluth in another NSIC match at 3 this afternoon.

The Wolves will try to get over the hump at pivotal points in sets.

“I just think that executing on point 20 is something that we really have to figure out,” Thompson said.

To see a complete box score of the match, click on the following link:

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/womens-volleyball/stats/2024/st-cloud-state/boxscore/13669