Blocking and serving have been early-season bugaboos for the Creighton volleyball team through the first three weeks, but they took a step forward in one of those areas against former Missouri Valley Conference rival Wichita State.
The 15th-ranked Bluejays (6-3), led by senior Megan Ballenger, put up a season-high 11 ace blocks in a 25-15, 25-17, 25-19 sweep of the Shockers in front of nearly 1,700 fans at D.J. Sokol Arena on Thursday night.
A normally unconventional Wichita State team finished with 24 kills and 23 attack errors on 92 swings because of Creighton’s attention to detail with the scouting report and their execution of it at the net.
“They are probably the most confusing team as far what patterns they run,” Ballenger said. “It was really important to talk and have all of the blockers communicating during the play and before the play. They ran some different lineups with different players and hit out of different slots. That made it kind of difficult to track.”
The fifth-year senior middle blocker from Ankeny, Iowa tied her career-high with 8 blocks in helping the Jays limit the Shockers to .011 hitting for the entire match.
Offensively, the Bluejays punished their former arch nemesis with a balanced attack. Ballenger and fellow middle/right side hitter Naomi Hickman each had five kills; freshman Keeley Davis (match-high 12 kills) and junior Erica Kostelac (8 kills) added 20 from the pins, and Jaela Zimmerman chipped in 11 kills on a variety of attacks at the net, in the back row, and on out-of-system balls.
The Shockers scored three of their first six points of the match thanks to their block, but an adjustment by Creighton ignited an 11-2 run to get the offense going as they cruised to a 25-15 win in game one.
“We got blocked early twice because we were hitting low into the seam,” Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “Wichita was really bunching quite a bit, so we distributed a little more to the pins because of that. We felt like they were giving us some holes that we could take advantage of.”
The Bluejays hit .407 as a team and sided-out at 82% in a 25-17 win in set two to take a 2-0 match lead into the locker room. Zimmerman and Davis combined for nine kills on 14 swings — only committing one error between the two of them — to help their team seize control midway through the set.
Creighton opened up a commanding 11-3 lead out of the locker room, but some sloppy play on their side of the net allowed the Shockers to get within striking distance and hang around until the end. They were outgunned when it was all said and done, however, as the Jays finished off the sweep with a 25-19 victory in game three, earning match point on a combo block by Ballenger and senior setter Madelyn Cole.
“I thought overall it was a pretty clean match,” Booth said. “I thought we sided-out extremely well, and our hitting continues to take strides in the right direction. We still have to work on our service errors. There is no question that is kind of our Achilles’ heel, but I’m optimistic that I think we can fix that. It might not be fixed tomorrow, but I think we can get that going in the relatively near future.
“I thought we got a little loosey-goosey in game three that kind of let them get a little closer than they should have, but overall I thought it was a good night. Wichita State is a good team and obviously there is a big rivalry there for those of us that are old, so it’s fun to play them and we have great respect for their program.”
The Bluejays will be back on their home court on Saturday, September 21 when they close out the non-conference portion of their schedule in a 1:00 p.m. match against Wyoming.
Photos from the victory:
