The Creighton volleyball team stretched their winning streak to four games and improved to 3-0 in conference play by winning six out of seven sets over the weekend against Butler and Xavier, two of the four the Big East Tournament participants from a year ago.
Senior All-American middle blocker Kelli Browning finished the weekend with 22 kills and a .393 attack percentage over the weekend, and Creighton got a monstrous match out of senior outside hitter Leah McNary and an historic performance from another senior in Katie Neisler to lead the Jays in two victories.
Check out more than 100 photos from Creighton’s win vs. Butler!
Creighton def. Butler, 3-1 (26-24, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22)
Creighton Volleyball’s four seniors led an inspired performance as they combined for 50 kills, 25 digs, and 10 blocks, dispatching Butler in four sets (26-24, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22) on Senior Night at D.J. Sokol Arena.
“It was a lot of fun, and I think that’s what got us on a roll was that we were having fun out there,” said senior outside hitter Katie Neisler. “We just played for each other. We are a close group and that definitely affects the way we play.”
Creighton’s Katie Neisler (WBR/Adam Streur CLICK PHOTO TO BUY)
The Bluejays were in control for most of the opening set before a 9-4 run by the Bulldogs evened up the score at 20-all late in the game. Each team traded service errors to keep it knotted at 21-all before kills by Neisler and fellow senior Kelli Browning sparked a 3-0 run and gave Creighton set point. The Bulldogs block helped them save three straight set points to bring the match even once again, but another kill by Neisler, her fifth of the set, followed up by a combo block from Browning and setter Maggie Baumert gave Creighton game one, 26-24.
Two themes would prove to be the difference for the Creighton Bluejays throughout the match: the play of the seniors, specifically outside hitters Neisler and Leah McNary, and also being strong at end game in the three sets they won. With things evened up at 18-18 late in the second set. A kill by Kelli Browning gave Creighton a point advantage. Then Bluejay head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth inserted senior Michelle Sicner into the match at setter for the final push.
Sicner, who lost her mother Cheryl to colon cancer on September 5, not only handled her emotions but actually made the key plays Creighton needed to finish off the set. She teamed up with Browning for a block to make it 20-18, then after a timeout by Butler she assisted a kill by Katie Neisler, then got one of her own on a setter dump to make it 22-20. Her final contribution was the most important as she set up Leah McNary on the left side for the kill that gave Creighton a 2-0 lead in the match as the teams headed to intermission. Sicner had a hand in four of Creighton’s final six points with a variety of different contributions to help the Jays outscore Butler, 7-4, to close out the set.
“The first thing did was get a block,” Booth said when talking about the lift Sicner provided. “Michelle is … I’ve had some great pin blockers and I could list off a couple, but Michelle might be the best we’ve ever had. She came in and did what she does great and obviously she does other things great, too. It was great to see do that, especially on a night like tonight.”
Butler used a 5-0 run midway through the third set to break a 15-15 tie and get themselves back in the match. The Bulldogs hit .342, getting 17 kills on 38 swings in the set as the offense paced their late runs. The Bulldogs finished a 25-22 game with a kill by Belle Obert to make it 2-1 and push the host Bluejays to a fourth set.
Michelle Sicner (8) smiles with teammates (WBR/Mike Spomer CLICK PHOTO TO BUY)
Obert finished with a team-high 19 kills to lead Butler. She would’ve led all players if not for the play of a certain senior outside hitter for Creighton who stepped up for the Bluejays to help finish off the match.
That senior was the 5-foot 10-inch, high-flying Leah McNary, better know by Creighton fans as “Air McNary.” She had five kills on seven swings in the fourth set and each kill provided a huge boost for the Bluejays. Her first one of the set evened the score at 1-1. Her next two started a 4-1 run that turned an 8-8 tie into a 12-9 Creighton lead. Her fourth came on an assist from Neisler and gave Creighton 18-17 lead out of a timeout after Butler had pulled ahead momentarily. Her fifth and final kill of the fourth set came on an assist from Maggie Baumert, one of her 52 helpers on the night, and gave Creighton a two-point lead that quickly grew to three to provide the final margin of 25-22 and get Creighton off to a 2-0 start in conference play for the fifth consecutive season.
Creighton’s Leah McNary (WBR/Mike Spomer — CLICK PHOTO TO BUY)
The outside hitting duo of McNary and Neisler were crucial to the Bluejays all night long. McNary finished with 20 kills for the first time since November 17, 2012. It was the fourth time in her decorated career that she has recorded 20 or more kills in a match. Neisler, a senior out of Double Oak, Tex., stepped up to fill the void left by the injury to sophomore Jess Bird. Although Bird returned for the Butler match it was in a limited role, which meant Neisler would have to give another solid performance, and on this night she was better than solid, finishing with 16 kills and 17 digs to become the first Creighton player to have both 16 or more kills and 16 or more digs in a match since November 23, 2007, and the first Bluejay to do it after the scoring changes took effect in 2008, reducing the score to win down from 30 to 25.
“We felt to beat Butler that we needed to hit well out of the outside, because their best blockers are on the backside of the middle,” Booth said. “We go to the backside a lot. We go to Kelli Browning a lot, we used Marysa (Wilkinson) a lot, and with Lauren in front they had more hands in front of her the whole time. This is one of the best blocking teams in the whole country, so for us to be successful against them our outsides had to be productive.”
Creighton’s Kelli Browning dominates at the net (WBR/Adam Streur CLICK PHOTO TO BUY)
Creighton def. Xavier, 3-0 (25-22, 25-12, 25-16)
Last season the Bluejays needed 13 sets to complete a three-game season sweep of the Xavier Musketeers with the first and third wins going to four sets and the second victory, in Omaha, going to five games. That was not the case on Sunday afternoon in front of 1,281 fans at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Creighton held Xavier to .064 hitting for the match and Kelli Browning finished a dominant performance with 15 kills on 29 swings. She was the only player in the match to post double figures in kills. It was such a strong performance by the two-time All-American that after two sets she had 11 kills and Xavier, as a team, only had 15.
“I think the Xavier had four hands up a fair amount against Kelli,” head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said of how the Musketeers defended Browning. “They’re a good blocking team, Butler is a great blocking team. I thought Kelli was amazing, because there were several times I thought ‘oh jeez that’s a huge block’, and she found ways to create kills. What Kelli is doing right now, and what people are having an opportunity to see, is pretty special.”
The first set proved to be a game of runs. Three 3-0 runs by the Bluejays from first serve on gave them a 17-13 lead, but Butler responded with five consecutive blocks after a kill by Makayla Agin to take a 19-17 lead late in the first game. Creighton burned both timeout during the 6-0 Musketeer run. The message was received the second time around as Maggie Baumert set up sophomore Lauren Smith for a kill to cut the deficit to one. True freshman Marysa Wilkinson followed that up by tooling the Xavier block for a kill to even the match at 19-all. A Butler attack error gave Creighton the lead and an ace by Baumert stretched the lead to 21-19 before Xavier battled back to tie it up. Creighton’s Jess Bird and Butler’s Kristen Massa traded kills before Wilkinson spiked home two in a row, and Browning tipped home the game-winner to give Creighton a 25-22 win in set one.
“I thought the first game we did some fantastic things. I thought we played great defense, but I thought we gave up some points that we shouldn’t be giving up,” Booth said. “I thought they were errors for the most part. Xavier set up a good block, but I felt like we were kind of hitting low into those, but it was great to see us rally.”
The second and third sets were dominated by the Bluejays. They held Xavier to a .025 attack percentage in the final two sets and neutralized Xavier’s Abbey Bessler. The Musketeer star entered the match with 188 kills on the season, including a 3.62 kills per set average. On Sunday, the Bluejays held her to just three kills on 23 swings, which included six attack errors as she finished with a match-low -.130 attack percentage.
Limiting Bessler was part of the game plan for Creighton and coach Booth was pleased with her team’s execution in that regard.
“We went at her from a serve/receive standpoint, trying to wear her down,” said Booth. “Last year when she came to this place she tore us up. It was a battle and she was just tooling us over and over. We were really fortunate and I thought we did a nice job containing her. I thought our serving kind of disrupted things for getting them in system.”
The Bluejays used not one, but two runs of 7-2 at the beginning and midway point of the set to break the second game open en route to a 25-12 victory before intermission. The third set was competitive for the first half of the set, but Katie Neisler broke a 12-12 tie with a kill and Kelli Browning keyed an 11-3 run shortly after that to finish of the Bluejay sweep and put Xavier away 25-16 in the final game. Browning finished with 15 kills on 29 swings, good for a .483 attack percentage on the afternoon to cap off another strong weekend after earning All-Tournament honors at the Creighton Classic last weekend.
“I think like with anyone it really builds confidence,” Browning said of her recent performances. “It’s makes you relax a little bit out there to know that you can go out and put this ball down and to not freak out or panic in that sense. When the pass is there, and Maggie’s been putting up a great ball, it’s pretty easy to do.”
Browning says she isn’t the only one feeling confident on the court after a 3-0 start to Big East play. She says the Jays are feeling good, playing good, and ready for the challenges ahead.
“We’re doing pretty good and we’re looking forward to going to Milwaukee, my hometown, and Chicago as well. It’s going to be another fun weekend ahead of us.”
The Bluejays (10-6 overall, 3-0 Big East) will face DePaul in Chicago on Friday at 7:oo p.m. (CST) then take on the reigning Big East regular season and conference tournament champion Marquette less than 24 hours later in Milwaukee. First serve between the Bluejays and Golden Eagles is set for 6:00 p.m. (CST).
