Jaela Zimmerman continued her leadership for the Jays (Juszyk/WBR)
The first stop on a four-match road trip to start conference play fell squarely into the “gritty, not pretty” category for the Creighton volleyball team. The 16th-ranked Bluejays out-dug a scrappy Butler squad 92-83 to earn a 25-16, 25-22, 23-25, 25-19 win in four sets at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Friday night.
The Bulldogs recorded six aces for the fifth time this season and found enough creative ways to score, despite hitting .135 as a team, to keep CU from putting together any of the lengthy runs that helped them win 36 of the 42 sets they played during the non-conference portion of their schedule.
“Butler plays kind of an unorthodox game,” Jays head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “They throw the ball a lot and they find open spots, whether it’s a short tip or a hard tip or a deep corner tip, and it rattled us. Kudos to them.
“I thought we really struggled passing more than we have (this season). They short-served us and we did not make adjustments well. With all that said, we’re pleased to get a first Big East road win. We just have to learn from it and be cleaner.”
Jaela Zimmerman helped “dig” the Jays to a win. (Juszyk/WBR)
Senior outside hitter Jaela Zimmerman hit .259 on a season-high 58 swings and she got more efficient the later the match went despite also handling her usual responsibilities with first contact on serve receive as well as blocking and defense. She had eight kills and four errors on 28 swings in the first two sets, then came out of intermission to record 13 kills with just two errors on 20 swings in sets three and four.
If you don’t have a calculator handy, that is a whopping .550 attack percentage after intermission, which was elevated by a seven-kill, error-free performance on the 11 rips she took in the match-clinching fourth set. In total, she tied her career-high with 21 kills and finished one off her personal-best with 17 digs to record her sixth double-double of the season and the first 20-kill, 15-dig match of her Bluejay career. Not only does her self confidence rarely waver, but her aggressive mindset on a point-by-point basis is absorbed by every one in Creighton blue on the court with her.
“I was actually talking to Jaela and Norah tonight about (Jaela’s) progression mentally in her time at Creighton” Booth said. “She said ‘I think as a freshman I thought I was supposed to be angry if things didn’t go well — that was how I showed I care, and now it’s move on, let’s get the next one.’
“And she follows her words. She doesn’t just say, ‘hey, let’s be aggressive and go for it.’ She will take risks and she definitely sets a tone on that stuff for us — in all capacities.”
Head Coad Kirsten Bernthal Booth mentioned the leadership out on the court (Juszyk/WBR)
Creighton’s attack as a whole followed her lead in dialing up the efficiency in the latter two games. In the first and second set the Jays hit .177. In sets three and four they hit .277, despite 15 more attempts.
Defensively, the 92 digs were a season-high and the most they’ve had in a four-set match since 2014. That along with the 9.5 blocks helped to limit Butler to a .135 attack percentage. It’s the 10th match in a row in which they’ve held an opponent under .200 — the longest such streak since 2006 where they held the opposition below .200 hitting for the first 11 matches of the season, then topped it with 12-matches streak from September 29th to November 10th.
Up next on the schedule for the now 13-1 Jays is a match at Xavier on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. The Musketeers also opened conference play on Friday night, winning the final three sets to beat Providence in five. They had three players — Emma Grace, Carrigan O’Reilly, and Delaney Hogan — finish with more than 10 kills, and the trio combined to hit .306 on 108 total attacks, so they Creighton won’t have time to rest on its laurels after the win in Indy.
“Xavier I think will be fighting for a top three spot (in the Big East),” Booth said. “They were much improved last year and they are building on that. They have a really active setter and solid pieces at every position. They are much more orthodox (than Butler), but they are good at what they do. They’ve got a really good middle, too. We’re going to need to be ready to play.”