The Creighton volleyball team came into Friday’s game against Northern Iowa already at a disadvantage. They were 3-35 all time against the Panthers, including 1-16 at home and they were 1-39 against ranked teams. Creighton started slow, mounted a comeback, but came up short again as the records went to 3-36, 1-17 and 1-40 with Northern Iowa on the winning side of things 25-16, 25-21, 24-26 and 25-20.
The Bluejays didn’t get off the right foot in the first set as they sort of went back and forth with UNI getting two points in a row versus Creighton getting only one which extended Northern Iowa’s lead which led to the 25-16 first set loss. Creighton couldn’t keep the Panther swingers in check and they looked dominant over the Bluejays. After the first set, my son looked over at me, and you must realize that he is only 8, and said, “They need to block more of those spikes.” Wise words indeed.
The second set looked like Creighton got the message and led throughout most of the set with margins of 16-11 and 19-16. But a lot of unforced errors kept Northern Iowa in it and they took advantage scoring 9 of the final 11 points of the match sending the Bluejays to the locker room down 0-2 instead of tied at one.
After the halftime entertainment, Creighton was down early 5-1 and it looked like the Bluejays were done. More unforced errors, some miscommunication and no flow to their game. At one point, Creighton was down 22-16 and by that time, people in the crowd were passing around vouchers to the soccer game so people could migrate over to watch that as Creighton was about to be swept. However, Creighton got a couple of points and rallied with the jump serve of Nayka Benitez and the insertion of Lisa Greisch late in the set. They escaped with a 26-24 win and the crowd was back in the game.
In the fourth and what would end up being the final set of the evening, the scoring was back and forth until Northern Iowa went on a streak of 4 in a row to take a 17-14 lead and Creighton could not rally this time and had to settle for second place on this night. Northern Iowa has now mowed through the other preseason top teams in the conference, so they are definitely setting the standard for Valley volleyball.
But all is not lost. There were a few highlights of the evening:
- Julianne Mandolfo is just a stud–She took over the libero position last weekend to open conference play and there is a reason why she has moved to that position. She was just everywhere. Diving for balls, getting from one side to the other in split seconds and handling a lot of those Northern Iowa spikes. She is definitely going to set some dig records before her career is over.
- You have to like the energy Karisa Almgren brings to the court. She has really stepped up this year filling in a front row spot. Every point that occurs while she is on the court she has a lot of emotion trying to fire up her teammates. It won’t show up in the boxscore, but she is taking full advantage of her expanded role this season.
- Nayka Benitez is accepting her new role. Appearing in the rest of her career games at Creighton as the libero, Benitez moved over to a defensive specialist position for the first time tonight. She responded by recording 14 digs and having a solid serving night. Benitez has struggled at times with her serving this season, but was pretty on tonight.
- The Valley is looking like a strong league this season. Last week, the Missouri Valley Conference had the sixth best conference RPI. In the past it would be around the 8-10 range. What this means is that Creighton still has opportunities to sit at the top of the league and even if Northern Iowa doesn’t falter, finishing second in the league could still have the NCAA selection committee look at taking another Valley team based on the league RPI. So every win Creighton can get will get them closer to the NCAA Tournament.
The best way for the Bluejays to rebound is to get back on the court. They will have the opportunity again on Saturday against Bradley at 5PM.
