Kirsten Bernthal Booth probably couldn’t have asked for a better situation than what her Creighton volleyball team has been presented with in their first season in the Big East. With the way things have played out so far, the impression is that Big East volleyball as a whole is a bit better than expected.
With the move to the Big East, there were obvious upgrades in competition in basketball and soccer compared to the Missouri Valley Conference. However, the questions still remained on how the move would impact the other teams like the volleyball program after some great success in the MVC. In the first season of the Big East, there are only nine teams in the conference (Providence doesn’t fully fund volleyball), only one returning team other than Creighton that made the postseason last year and several programs that had a lot of questions marks heading into the season.
The Bluejays built a non-conference schedule that would make a lot of top teams blush, but have been solid in the non-conference. Despite losing against UCLA and Hawaii in consecutive weekends, the Bluejays have been able to stay in the AVCA Top 25 and, in fact, moved up to #22 in this week’s rankings after being off for a week before starting conference play. The schedule has been nothing less than challenging. Sitting at 9-3, Creighton is poised to make a nice run in conference play boasting wins in the non-conference over BYU, Cal State-Northridge, and Kansas who are all sniffing at the top 25, not to mention against knocking off their former MVC foe Wichita State in Wichita. Six of the opponents have been ranked in the top-25 this season, and all 12 are currently in the top-135 of the Pablo rankings.
But, it isn’t just the Bluejays finding success. Look at some of the other teams making an impact so far:
Butler: The Bulldogs are sitting at 13-3 and was actually 13-2 before losing their conference opener against Xavier last weekend. The big stat for Butler so far is that they have swept in 10 of their 13 wins this season.
Marquette: Even though they are just 8-4, they have the NCAA Tournament experience and will be a big competitor in Big East play. Of their four losses, three of them came against teams currently in the top 5 in the nation. The other loss was against BYU who was just outside of the top 25 this week and was ranked in the preseason.
DePaul: They went undefeated in the non-conference season at 13-0 before suffering their first loss against Marquette last weekend to kick off Big East play. Although they didn’t play as tough of a non-conference schedule as Creighton and Marquette has tackled so far, they are riding a lot of confidence and the compilation of wins definitely helps the RPI.
St. John’s: The Johnny’s are 12-5 to start the season and got a five match victory over Seton Hall last weekend to kick off conference play. Like DePaul, they are not a powerhouse team, but very competitive and a positive record through the first third of the season.
The rest of the conference has been a big up and down, but all still enter conference play with winning records except for Georgetown, who is sitting at 6-8. What probably wasn’t expected was that the Big East would actually outperform the MVC in the non-conference season, adding exclamation to the movement of Creighton to the Big East having an impact. Whether it is just ironic or not is yet to be seen, but the MVC, which has produced multiple bids over the past several seasons, doesn’t have a team around the top 25 nor seem to have had the success in the non-conference that they have in the past. Last week a poster on the Bluejay Underground gave some interesting numbers comparing the RPI of the Big East teams versus the MVC teams heading into conference play:
- Creighton (6 in RPI) vs. Wichita St. (37)
- Marquette (35) vs. Missouri St. (40)
- Butler (39) vs. ISUred (84)
- Xavier (87) vs. Northern Iowa (90)
- Villanova (99) vs. Loyola (153)
- DePaul (114) vs. Southern Illinois (171)
- Seton Hall (133) vs. Evansville (215)
- St. John’s (164) vs. Bradley (217)
- Georgetown (177) vs. ISUblue (275)
- No Big East team (Providence plays vb in America East Conference) vs. Drake (299)
- Median RPI — Big East 99, MVC 153
- Average RPI — Big East 95, MVC 158
- Top 100 teams — Big East 5, MVC 4
Looking at these numbers, it sure looks like it was a good decision for Creighton and their move to the Big East for volleyball so far based on the first season. Can Creighton earn themselves a regional when it comes to the NCAA Tournament? Well, we probably shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves. First up is conference play.
Conference Play Begins This Weekend
Big East play actually started already last weekend, but Creighton spent the first week on a bye. It is all part of the schedule put together for this season which was complicated a little bit based on the status of the Big East at the time the schedule came out.
Earlier this summer the reformed Big East launched. Without a conference staff in place, it was up to the volleyball coaches to put together a conference schedule and coach Bernthal Booth was instrumental in getting the conference schedule. The schedule is a bit unique because of only nine teams participating and the travel involved with the Bluejays being the farthest team away from the rest of the league. It was Bernthal Booth’s idea for scheduling that was ultimately selected.
“The biggest issue with the conference is since Providence isn’t part of the Volleyball, it is just nine teams,” said Bernthal Booth on scheduling. “Nine teams is a really difficult number of teams to schedule. Several of us came up with several different formats and actually the format we are using is the one that I had proposed.”
Despite being on the road for almost a month to close out the non-conference season, the traveling Jays will stay on the road for their first weekend in the Big East taking on Butler and Xavier this weekend. In the MVC, the Bluejays would usually play a Friday night and Saturday night or Saturday night and Sunday afternoon matches opposite of their traveling partner. However, in the Big East, the Bluejays do not have a travel partner. When they go out to the east coast, the games will be similar to the past, but when teams come to Omaha, the matches will usually be a Friday night, Sunday afternoon contest against two Big East teams but with some twists that Bernthal Booth details.
“It is atypical. So when teams come to Creighton, they are just playing Creighton. We are sort of a lone wolf because we don’t have a travel partner. That is why we are playing Friday/Sunday [at home] because they will be just playing us. It is also so that we have some rest and preparation time since they will be preparing just for us that week.”
“But when we go play them, one weekend a year, each team except for us will have to play three matches in a row on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So that is the negative on their end. They do that one one occasion. It is not a perfect system, and as equitable as we can put together. It will be interesting if we add teams or if Providence joins. I don’t know what we will do.”
The Bluejays are the favorite this season in the Big East and have a goal to be part of the Big East conference tournament that includes the top four teams, is hosted in Omaha and occurs the week AFTER Thanksgiving compared to the MVC tournament that occurred over Thanksgiving in the past. Of course, ultimately they would like to make a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. Luckily they have the successful non-conference season along with a strong Big East to help them get there. They just need to do the work to make it reality. It all starts this weekend in new cities and new venues.
NOTES:
- Neither one of the matches will be broadcast this weekend. You can follow the live stats for each match here.
- Creighton has never played Butler or Xavier before.
- The last time Creighton lost a match in October dates back to 2011. They have won 10 straight matches in October.
- Creighton has won five straight road matches to go five sets, including wins last year over Northern Iowa, Wichita State and Missouri State, and wins this year at Denver and Wichita State.
