St. Cloud State fifth year outside hitter Kenzie Foley isn’t shy about her ambitions.
While the defending AVCA National Division II Player of the Year has broken four SCSU Volleyball career records this year, individual accolades aren’t what drove her to return for a final season.
It was unfinished business.
The Huskies had their fourth-consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament end abruptly last fall with an opening round sweep. With a young team almost entirely returning for 2024, the decision to play a final year for SCSU was easy for Foley.
“I get to play with my best friends one more year and play the sport we love together,” Foley said. “Whether we outwardly show it or it’s an inner goal of ours, I think everyone wants a national championship.”
The Huskies, who are currently on a 23-game win streak and ranked No. 2 in Division II, earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division II Central Region Volleyball Tournament. It will be the first time SCSU has ever hosted a volleyball regional.
The Huskies begin their quest for three wins in three days on Thursday, facing No. 8 seed Ouachita Baptist at 7 p.m. in Halenbeck Hall. SCSU has a perfect 13-0 record at home this season.
If SCSU can extend that 23-game win streak six wins further, they will be able to achieve the goal Foley set for herself before ever even arriving on campus.
“One of my goals coming into St. Cloud, before I was even recruited, was to win a national championship,” Foley said. “I obviously haven’t done that yet, so I knew I was coming back because there was unfinished business to take care of.”
Difficult start
It didn’t take long for SCSU Volleyball head coach Chad Braegelmann to see they needed to have Foley on their roster for the 2020 season.
After associate head coach Marci Taumalolo watched Foley play at the Iowa state tournament and impress on film, her and Braegelmann traveled over five hours to Omaha to watch her in a weekend tournament.
Even at the 8 a.m. opening match, her talent was obvious.
“The first ball they hit right to her, she passed it out of the middle back, she hit the ball out of the back row and just crushed it,” Braegelmann said. “I looked at Marcie and said, ‘She needs to be a Husky.’”
Foley eventually committed to SCSU, joining a program coming off their first 20-win season in over two decades in 2019.
“It was a program that was on the rise, that was enticing to me,” Foley said. “There was history that hadn’t been done here yet … I wanted to be that impact player.”
That impact didn’t come nearly as quickly as she expected. With the fall 2020 season canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Foley spent her freshman campaign only practicing besides a handful of scrimmages in the spring.
Those first weeks of practice were extremely frustrating for her, constantly being shut down by future All-American middle blocker Phebie Rossi.
“Her whole life she could bully her way around the volleyball court, because she was bigger, faster and stronger than her opponents,” Braegelmann said. “Now how can you learn to hit different shots, be patient and hit things a different way.”
The adjustments came gradually, with Foley increasing her shot creativity, defense and court vision. She was named the DII National Freshman of the Year in 2021, and the following year the Huskies made their deepest NCAA tournament run in program history by reaching the Central Region final with a 28-6 overall record.
Record-breaking season
Foley has been etching her name in the record books this season on what has nearly felt like a weekly basis.
She has broken the career kills, career double-digit kill matches and career double-doubles records this fall. Those were all previously set by All-American outside hitter Linsey Rachel in 2022, who Foley learned from while sharing the court together for multiple seasons.
After Thursday’s math Foley will also hold the record for career sets played. But now holding the record for career points, which Foley first broke back in September to surpass Kathy Davis’ 36-year-old record, is the accomplishment she’s most proud of.
“That calculates aces, blocks, swings; knowing that it can continue to build, I want to make it stick as long as I can and make people push for the record,” Foley said.
Foley plays in sand tournaments, grass tournaments and co-ed leagues year-round. Her head coach said they can hardly ever get her to take a true break from the game.
“There’s no one that quite matches up to her whole skill set,” Braegelmann said about his decades of coaching at the collegiate level. “Her competitiveness, her physicality, her ability to defend the back row … she’s put it all together, and you see that with the awards she’s won.”
But any individual record or award won’t mean as much as raising a national championship banner in Halenbeck Hall.
“My main priority this year is team success; we’ve still got a ton of work to do as a team,” she said. “We all have individual work to do to keep getting better to get to the end goal that hasn’t been reached yet, which is the national championship.”
Renewed energy
While SCSU returned a very experienced roster for 2024, they also had a huge addition: redshirt junior outside hitter Ella Thompson.
Thompson played two years at Division I South Dakota State before transferring to SCSU last year. She spent her redshirt season in 2023 as a practice-only player, which gave her time to rediscover her love for the game.
“It was definitely a learning year for me, and big adjustments were made,” Thompson said. “I was treating every practice like a game … I was finding out who I was outside of the court, and how much of an impact I can make beyond the scoreboard.”
While her offensive impact has been a lethal threat for the Huskies in 2024, Thompson mainly prides herself on a different aspect of her game: energy.
She describes herself as loud, confident and competitive: all qualities that made her instant friends with Foley on her first visit to campus.
“Right when I met her, I’m like dang we’re really similar,” Foley recalls with a laugh. “I tell my family that she’s my sister from a different home. Sometimes we’re on each other, but we’re best friends: we pick each other up in times that are tough.”
“Having two people out on the court with the amount of energy we bring is special; she’s definitely grown me as a player but also as a person,” Thompson added. “I’m blessed to be friends with her.”
And that same energy extends to the entire team.
“Your voice is the one thing you can always contribute no matter what … that’s one of things I love about volleyball is that you’re never too loud,” Thompson said. “Our energy and our love for each other is what sets us apart from other squads, and that’s what makes playing on this team so fun. It’s my first experience being a part of this type of culture and love.”
Historic run
SCSU’s record season began the same way their NCAA tournament ended in 2023: with a 3-0 loss.
That season-opening sweep at the hands of Cal State Poloma in San Bernandino, California was an early wakeup call for the Huskies.
“Our very first game we expected to just win; I don’t think we understood what it took to be the team that we can be at the beginning of the season,” junior setter Emma Berran said. “We need to show up every day and work hard … if we want to get to the place we want to go.”
SCSU responded with wins over three ranked teams to close out their opening tournament, and a five-set loss to Northern Michigan on Sept. 14 was the last time they tasted defeat. Their current 23-match win streak has smashed the program’s previous record of 17 consecutive wins in 2021.
“There’s just been this intensity this year that I haven’t felt any other year or in the rest of my career,” Berran said. “There’s this fire inside of us that we’re going to go out and win it all.”
To do so, SCSU players say they can’t only be satisfied with a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season and tournament title. They have to fight off the concept of complacency and be consistent through every match in the NCAA Tournament.
They get a chance to make a major step this weekend in front of their home fans, who have been a positive influence whether at Halenbeck Hall or on the road throughout their historic season.
“It’s cool to see our fanbase grow; after matches I’ve had so many great conversations with youth girls from our camps over the summer,” Thompson said. “Their excitement and love for the game is growing from watching us play, and those are the most rewarding conversations to me.
“I love this community, I love this team, and I love this university,” Thompson added. “We have a chance to do something really special.”
Their mindset?
Why not us.
