Huskies Volleyball Heads To NCAA Tournament For Sixth Straight Year

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The St. Cloud State University volleyball team is preparing for its sixth straight appearance in the NCAA tournament. The team earned an automatic bid in the 64-team field when they won the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament last weekend.

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Head Coach Chad Braegelmann says the Huskies raised their level of play to beat the #1 and #2 seeds in the tournament. They beat Wayne State in the semi-finals and Concordia-St. Paul in the finals, two teams they lost to in the regular season.

We knew we had this level in us, but hadn't quite hit that level all season.  We were just fantastic offensively, our defense was on point, we were digging balls, our blocks were getting touches at the net.

Senior opposite side hitter Sam Zimmerman of Moorhead says having a deep bench helped them in the conference tournament and will be a key in the upcoming Central Regional tournament.

Part of it was just how deep our bench is.  In practice we're going at it every single day, competing at every position.  Truly a team is only as good as its weakest link, but our weakest links are significantly stronger than some other teams.

Senior Middle Blocker Ella Thompson of Lakeville says the team is working hard to prepare for the match on Thursday to open the regional tournament.

We're just doing a great job with preparing ourselves, and preparing as a team and not taking our reps for granted, and just getting excited for the games that are coming up.  There aren't a lot of teams that get to play right now, so just appreciating the reps that we get.

The Huskies will play Missouri Western in the first round, a team they didn't play in the regular season. Braegelman says they've been doing their homework to prepare for the match-up.

Earlier this year, they played Concordia-St. Paul and Wayne State.  Missouri Western beat Concordia and lost to Wayne State.

Last year, the Huskies made it to the round of 16 before they were eliminated. Zimmerman says they'd love to win the regional tournament this year and believes they have the experience to do it.

This year, I feel like the energy in the gym feels different, since so many of the girls who are on the court were on the court last year, when we ended up falling short.

SCSU has a 26-6 overall record and is ranked #5 in the nation. They'll face Missouri Western on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in Kearney, Nebraska. They are ranked #17 in the nation with an overall record of 21-7.