Beach volleyball helps former SCSU star Kenzie Foley get pro contract in Germany

After the season ended for the St. Cloud State volleyball team in December, Kenzie Foley decided she wanted to keep playing.

In NCAA Division I, there is indoor beach volleyball. Foley graduated from SCSU with a degrees in finance and data analytics and then transferred to Central Arkansas. Going from the court to sand volleyball had some challenges.

“In beach, it’s so much harder because you’re digging into the sand,” Foley said. “I talked to one of the older girls and told her that I was frustrated. They call them sand legs, which I never knew was a thing. You need to prance on the sand, so you’re not digging in so much.

“When I got back to court and playing some pickup games now, the timing is so much different. In beach, it’s all about IQ. That’s extremely helpful. It’s all about shots, hitting where the defender is not. My blocking has gotten a ton better in beach. It’s doubles and they don’t have positions. You’re either a blocker or a defender. I was just a blocker and I stayed at the net most of the time.

“I think it helped with strength and jumping. When I got back to the court, I was like, ‘where did this vertical come from?'”

Foley also knew that she wanted to play professional volleyball. Being a Division II player, she struggled to find an agency to help represent her. That’s when her beach volleyball team helped out.

“I had a teammate (Reegan Siewert) who had a coach who had played overseas and also coaches overseas and I got in contact with him,” said Foley, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter. “He got me in touch with the biggest agency in Europe (LZ Sport PRO: Professional Volleyball Agency) and they got me my first contract.

“My end goal is to get back to the United States and play for one of the leagues here. They said this would be a great first step to do so. I ended up signing the first contract I received.”

Andy Rennecke / St. Cloud LIVE

Foley signed a one-year contract with VfB Suhl LOTTO Thüringen, which is in Suhl, Germany, about 155 miles north and east of Frankfurt. So what is the process like to sign with a German team while you are living in Minnesota?

She had some video calls with the weight coach and the team’s head coach. So why VfB Suhl LOTTO Thüringen? Foley knows Eleanor Holthaus, a former Iowa State player who is from Richmond, Minnesota, and is a

ROCORI High School

graduate.

“She played for the team I’m going to,” Foley said of Holthaus, who played for the team in 2023-24. “When I found that out… I reached out to her. I said, ‘What are your thoughts?’ She had a really good experience and that I would love Germany. I knew that if I went to Germany, I could text her with any of my questions and have them answered quickly.”

There were other options than the team she chose.

“My agency talked to me and said that I could go to a lower level and possibly make more money,” Foley said. “But at the same time, you want to go somewhere that’s going to set you up for success and build your skill level to even better than what you have. The level of play is a lot quicker in a lot of European leagues.”

Foley is from Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, and will be moving to Germany in July. Preseason camp begins in August. The German league runs until the spring.

“I’m pretty excited, but a little nervous moving, for lack of a better term, across the pond,” Foley said. “It’ll be a change for sure. With my crippling shoe shopping addiction and clothes addiction, I’m going to have to figure out what I’m going to take with me. I’ll figure it out as time goes on. I’m excited about meeting new girls. I had a really good experience at Central Arkansas.”

Foley said that she has seen some video of the volleyball played in the league and knows that it will help her improve her game.

“If I can continue to build overseas and be an impact player there, maybe I can get an opportunity to show the kind of player I am,” she said. “Hopefully, I can get back to the United States and hang with the big dogs that are playing there.”

Andy Rennecke / St. Cloud LIVE

So what are things that she is looking to improve in her game?

“The biggest thing is the speed of the game and getting more adept at IQ,” Foley said. “It’s good, but it’s about tuning things up a little bit more. I would say speed is the biggest thing. I play with guys who have played college ball at home and that’s helped me with that process a little bit.”

While she wants to get back to the United States to play professionally, she is not ruling out staying overseas.

“I’m definitely a family girl, but I know that I’m young and I like traveling. Yes, that’s the ultimate goal,” she said of playing pro in the U.S. “But maybe I fall in love with Germany and I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m not leaving.’ I don’t know if that’s going to happen. The ultimate goal is to get back.”

Until she leaves, Foley is working for McArthur Sheet Metal in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Foley was talking with her mother about what she was going to do until she left and ended up finding the job through some mutual friends.

Contributed / St. Cloud State Athletics

“I work with the lasers and the pressers the most,” she said. “I love it. I work with all guys. There’s one girl in the company and she’s in the office and she deals with people coming in and out and ordering. I work with all guys and I love it because they’re funny.

“I’m a big person who likes to pick on people. They dish it and they know to expect to receive it. They’re just a lot of fun to be around. It’s a good way to meet people. I showed up the first day and I may have been a little bit quiet, which is definitely not me. They realized quickly that I’m not a quiet person … at all.”

Playing for

St. Cloud State

from 2021-24, Foley was 2023 AVCA DII National Player of the Year, earning four All-America honors, two NSIC Player of the Year honors and four NSIC all-conference honors.

She was named an AVCA First Team All-American three times (2021, 2023 and 2024) while earning second team honors in 2022, was twice named the AVCA Central Region player of the year (2023-24), twice the NSIC player of the year (2023-24) and the 2023 D-II national player of the year by AVCA and D2CCA.

She holds six career program records, including kills (2,033) and points (2,290) and is one of five players in program history to have 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs. In the classroom, Foley earned three Academic All-NSIC honors (2022-24) and twice earned CSC Academic All-District and CSC First Team Academic All-America honors (2023-24).

Contributed / St. Cloud State Athletics

Sept. 4 — at Simon Fraser (British Columbia), 7 p.m.
Sept. 5 — vs. San Francisco, 1 p.m. at Bellingham, Washington
Spet. 5 — vs. Western Washington, 9 p.m. at Bellingham, Washington
Sept. 6 — vs. Central Washington, 1 p.m. at Bellingham, Washington
Sept. 11 — vs. Adelphi (N.Y.), 6 p.m.
Sept. 12 — vs. Northern Michigan, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 13 — vs. Barry (Fla.), 2 p.m.
Sept. 19 — vs. Minot State, 6 p.m.
Sept. 20 — vs. University of Mary, 2 p.m.
Sept. 23 — at Minnesota State University-Mankato, 6 p.m.
Sept. 26 — at Jamestown, 6 p.m.
Sept. 27 — at Northern State, 3 p.m.
Oct. 3 — vs. Southwest Minnesota State, 6 p.m.
Oct. 4 — vs. Sioux Falls, 2 p.m.
Oct. 10 — at Augustana, 6 p.m.
Oct. 11 — at Wayne State (Neb.), 2 p.m.
Oct. 16 — vs. Concordia-St. Paul, 6 p.m.
Oct. 18 — at Winona State, 1 p.m.
Oct. 21 — vs. Minnesota State University-Mankato, 6 p.m.
Oct. 24 — vs. Northern State, 6 p.m.
Oct. 25 — vs. Jamestown, 2 p.m.
Oct. 31 — at University of Mary (N.D.), 6 p.m.
Nov. 1 — at Minot State, noon.
Nov. 4 — at Concordia-St. Paul, 6 p.m.
Nov. 7 — vs. Minnesota Duluth, 6 p.m.
Nov. 8 — vs. Bemidji State, 2 p.m.
Nov. 14 — at Minnesota Crookston, 6 p.m.
Nov. 15 — at Minnesota State University-Moorhead, 2 p.m.
Nov. 18 — NSIC Tournament quarterfinals at higher seed
Nov. 20 — NSIC Tournament semifinals
Nov. 21 — NSIC Tournament championship
Dec. 4 — NCAA Division II Regionals
Dec. 11 — NCAA Division II Elite 8 at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.