The Creighton volleyball team did their part to keep pace with Marquette atop the Big East standings on Saturday afternoon. The 14th-ranked Bluejays needed just under 90 minutes to earn a 25-21, 25-18, 25-14 sweep over Xavier at the Cintas Center to improve to 21-4 on the season and 14-1 in conference play.
Creighton took the first set thanks to a 9-2 run that helped them dig out of an early funk and grab a 16-11 lead. Xavier started off hot offensively, hitting .333 on their first 15 attacks, but CU’s serving broke their early rhythm and ended up holding them to an .053 attack percentage in the opening set. Senior Megan Ballenger and junior Naomi Hickman came up with big kills for the Jays, each finishing the first set with four as Xavier struggled to handle their physicality at the net. Redshirt freshman Keeley Davis led all players with seven kills and closed the 25-21 game-one win with three in a row to give her team the 1-0 match lead.
Naomi Hickman and crew shut down Xavier on Saturday (Spomer / WBR)
After falling behind 9-8 the Bluejays put together a 9-3 run to take control of the second set on their way to a comfortable 25-18 win, grabbing a 2-0 match lead before intermission. Sophomore Jaela Zimmerman had four kills in game two before handing it off to her pin-hitting partner, Keeley Davis, to finish things off with kills on Creighton’s final three points just as she did in the first set. After holding Xavier to an .053 hitting clip in set one, the Bluejays topped that the second time around as the Musketeers hit just .049 on 41 swings in set two.
Xavier nailed an ace on the first point of the set three to get off on the right foot, but it was all Creighton after that. The Bluejays used five ace blocks to hold the Musketeers to an -.062 attack percentage in game three as they cruised to a 25-14 win to wrap up their 12th sweep in Big East play this fall. After struggling to handle Xavier’s offense early, Creighton eventually settled defensively, finishing with 11 blocks and 57 digs to hold their opponents to a -.031 attack percentage on the last 96 swings that came their way.
“Xavier is hard to play because they run such a crazy fast offense, and I think it took us a little time to adjust to that,” head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “Once we did I thought our blocking really picked up. We were a little high error in the first game — it decreased as the match went on, which obviously was good … even though you can scout and try to prepare for their tempo, it’s almost like you have to see it a little bit before you can totally lock in to how quick it is.”
Offensively, senior setter Madelyn Cole finished with a match-high 36 assists, eclipsing the 30-assist mark for the 22nd time in 25 matches. Davis led the day with a match-high 14 kills. She was joined in double figures in the department by Zimmerman with 10 kills and 10 digs to record her fifth double-double of the season. Ballenger and Hickman combined for 15 terminations to go along with their eight blocks defensively. Five different Bluejays had at least 14 attacks throughout the three-set affair.
“A big goal today was to try to have offensive parity,” Booth said. “We felt like maybe we were losing that a bit last weekend and being a little bit more predictable. I thought Cole did a really good job of finding our middles and distributing to everyone so you didn’t know where we’re going.
“I thought Keeley had a great match. Xavier is a pretty big blocking team. They hurt us last time we played from a blocking standpoint, and I thought she did a good job. I thought Zimmerman struggled early offensively and she ended up hitting at the highest clip on the team. She really picked it up as the match went on.”
Junior outside hitter Erica Kostelac and freshman defensive specialist Emily Bressman were both inactive on Saturday afternoon. Coach Booth said after the match that she would know more about their status going forward later next week. One bit of good news on the injury front for the Jays was the return of Annika Welty. The sophomore right-side hitter saw her first action since the August 31 on Saturday against the Musketeers, finishing with four kills, three digs, and a block assist to help fill some of the void created by Kostelac’s injury.
“Annika got cleared on Wednesday, so she has not had live action for six or eight weeks,” Booth said. “For someone who hasn’t been out there and is kind of working back into things, I thought she did a great job.”
The Bluejays will be back in action on Sunday afternoon for their regular season road finale at Butler. First serve at Hinkle Fieldhouse is set for 12:00 p.m.