St. Cloud State Volleyball Opens Season At Up North Tournament In Michigan

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- Volleyball remains one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, with boys and girls high school teams, collegiate play, and now two professional women's teams in Minnesota.

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One of the top teams at the Division II level over the past several seasons is St. Cloud State University. The Huskies start the season picked to finish in the top three in the NSIC, and ranked #5 in the nation.

Chad Braegelmann/SCSU Volleyball

Head coach Chad Braegelmann says, after graduating six seniors from last year's squad, they have some holes to fill. But, he says they've looked tough in their exhibition games this summer.

We've scrimmaged three different opponents this summer, and we've been competitive in every single set.  We played a Division I team in there, and some teams that have historically been in the top half of the NSIC.  We've played a bunch of different line-ups.  Something we do in the pre-season is we're not putting out the same line-up ever twice.

After finishing each of the last two seasons ranked #5 in the nation in Division II, and advancing to their second straight Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament, they'll be relying on a new crop of young players to step up. They lost both their middle blockers and opposite side hitter to graduation. Braegelmann says veteran hitters Abby Wachal and Shelby Kimm may have to carry more of the workload until the new players get comfortable.

Our outside hitters will have to carry a little bit of that load and find a way to score, but we cannot be completely reliant on them.  It's just so hard to score when opponents know who's getting the ball.  So, we've got to be able to pass and defend well so our setter can be a little bit more diversified in our offense.  But, early on, you're right, Shelby and Abby are going to have to carry a little bit more of that load until we can figure out who else can score consistently for us.

Junior setter Braya LaPlant had a breakout season last year and was named the NCAA Division II player of the week once.

Chad Braegelmann/SCSU Volleyball

Braegelmann is entering his 12th season as the Huskies' head coach.

His overall career record is 492 wins and 273 losses.

They'll be at the Up North Tournament in Marquette, Michigan, hosted by Northern Michigan, Thursday and Friday. They'll play four games in two days to start the season.

Next weekend, they travel to Miami Shores, Florida, for the Barry Invitational, where they are scheduled to match up against two other nationally ranked teams, Barry and Lynn.

SCSU's home opening weekend is September 11th and 12th. Single-game and season tickets are still available.