If the volleyball game on Friday night between Creighton and Missouri State is any example for what the Missouri Valley Conference race is going to be like, then it is going to be a pretty exciting season for the Bluejays. Creighton started off strong, but then had to hold off a pesky Missouri State Bears team in five sets, 25-13, 25-23, 22-25, 22-25 and 15-8.
“We played consistent volleyball where we never panicked,” said freshman Melanie Jereb who has started all of Creighton’s matches this season. “But we definitely have a lot to improve on”
Creighton dominated the first set behind a 9-0 serving run by freshman Ashley Jansen to get out to a 12-3 lead. The Bluejays continued the strong play to score the final four points of the match winning 25-13. Leah McNary and Melanie Jereb had five kills and four kills respectively, keeping the Bears really off balance.
The second set started out much the same as Creighton ran out to a 12-6 lead. It was then that Missouri State started to turn things around and tied things up at 16. It then went back and forth for the next 12 points before the Bluejays scored three of the final four points to escape the second set 25-23 and into the break up 2-0.
Missouri State countered in the third and fourth set by shouldering the workload on the arm of Christine McCartney, who finished the night with a game high 23 kills. Similar to the second set, the scoring went back and forth in the third set with nine ties and three lead changes. With the match tied at 22, the Bears were able to secure the final three points to take that set. The fourth set was almost an exact mirror of the third set where again there were nine ties and two lead changes with Missouri State able to score the final three points with the score tied at 22 to tie the match up at 2-2.
“In game three, I thought missouri State played a lot better and we played okay, but we had some breakdowns,” said Bernthal Booth “Players that got going for Missouri State we did not get adjusted to quick enough to be able to contain them. McCartney got a boatload of sets and that was effective.”
The fifth and final set saw both teams exchange blows as Creighton went up early 3-0 and Missouri State countered to tie it 3-3. After that, however, the Bluejays took over the final frame with four straight points and closing things out with a 15-8 victory and moved to 1-0 to open MVC play, broke a three-game losing streak to Missouri State and extended their record to 5-0 in five-set matches at Sokol Arena.
“I really like how we responded in game five. I think you lose two games in a row and you could roll over emotionally, but they came out ready to win that game and thinking that they were going to win it and that was good.”
Overall, head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth was happy with her team’s play.
“Missouri State was a completely different team in the second half of the game tonight,” said Bernthal Booth. “They didn’t come out playing their best and we were ready to go. I think when you roll a team for a game and a half and then they start to play better it disrupts things. Then you start to panic a little bit.”
The Bluejays were led with by a balanced attack with Jereb, McNary and Kelli Browning finishing in double figures in kills while Megan Bober had 7 of her own. Jereb was three blocks away from a triple-double while Browning finished with a team high 16 kills and 11 block assists. That balance is something Bernthal Booth loves about her team.
“I think that is one of our strengths if you scout Creighton, you can say it might be Kelli Browning, it might be Heather Thorson, it might be Leah McNary, it might be Melanie Jereb, it might be Michelle Sicner. Bober might have a ton of dunks. That is our goal that a team cannot shut down one player because if they do shut down one, then someone else can step up and carry the load.”
Jereb agreed with that assessment. “They focused in more on Kelli and Leah at the beginning that gave me a chance to score. But then they started getting more aware that every player on our team can score.”
Creighton now focuses on a quick turnaround and take on Wichita State on Saturday night. “We will do a lot of resting,” said Booth with a smile. “They will watch some film to see Wichita State a little bit. We have given them the scouting report so they can chew on that”
And with the MVC in volleyball anything can happen. “The atmosphere definitely had a different feel to it, but it is still volleyball, 25 points, we just focus now on what we have to do, ” said Jereb. “It’s another volleyball match.”
