Creighton’s mixed emotions were on full display for all of college volleyball to witness on Wednesday night. For the second time in the last five years, Kirsten Bernthal Booth’s Bluejays hosted the largest crowd to ever watch a regular season match in the history of the sport. For the second time in the last five years, they went kill for kill, dig for dig, and block for block with a Nebraska team that has legitimate national championship aspirations. But for the 19th time in as many chances, they ended up on the losing side of a matchup with their in-state rivals from less than an hour down the way.
Keeley Davis working to get the ball past Nebraska defenders (Juszyk / WBR) $Click to buy$
That’s the reality that the 17th-ranked Jays were left to wrestle with after losing a 3-hour, 5-set instant classic by a total of just five points — the closest final tally ever in series history — against 2nd-ranked Nebraska in front of a record-setting crowd of 15,797 at CHI Health Center Omaha.
“We’re disappointed. We came into this match wanting to win it and we talked a lot about that,” Booth said. “I’m disappointed, but I love us battling against one of the best teams in the country. To come back from 0-2 showed some great resilience, but I want us to learn from it and know that we are in that mix of top teams in the country.”
Creighton tallied six kills against five attack errors in opening set as the Huskers ran over them to win it 25-18. Sophomore pin hitter Whitney Lauenstein set the tone throughout the first game with seven kills on 10 swings, one more termination than CU’s whole team.
The second set was a different story. After getting out-hit .286 to .032 in set one, the Bluejays got the right blend of volume and efficiency from its two starting pin hitters in redshirt senior Keeley Davis and true sophomore — and Papillion, Nebraska native — Norah Sis. The two combined to hit .313 in game two, with Davis putting up six kills on 13 error-free swings, while Sis finding the floor five times. There were 10 ties and four lead changes in the set, but in the end, it was the Huskers who made one more play at end game to pull out the 25-23 win and seize a 2-0 match lead at intermission.
Norah Sis helped the Bluejays dig out of an 0-2 disadvantage. (Juszyk / WBR)
Previously, the Huskers had collected that same 2-0 lead 12 times in its series history with Creighton. All 12 times, Nebraska dropped CU in the third to finish the sweep. Wednesday night would not become number 13. In a must-win game three, Creighton came out of the locker room and produced their best offensive set of the match with 18 kills on .300 hitting. Davis and Sis, and senior middle/right side Kiana Schmitt, sophomore middle/right side Kiara Reinhardt, and freshman outside hitter Ava Martin each had at least a pair of kills and Creighton saved set point late of a timeout before closing the show with a 27-25 win to buck the trend that spanned all the way back to the very first meeting between the two programs in 1998.
The fourth set was all Bluejays. Sis opened it up with kills on the first two points and Creighton never looked back. Owning the serve and pass battle, CU held Nebraska to .047 hitting — their lowest in a single set since the fifth and deciding game in last fall’s national championship match against Wisconsin — and just like that they had done what 12 other Creighton teams had failed to do by successfully rallying all the way back from an 0-2 deficit against the Huskers.
“We always say the next set is 0-0,” Davis said. “It was about keeping that mentality and knowing that we have each other’s back through anything and everything.”
“It was easy to turn that around because we all wanted it so badly,” Sis added. “Right when we went into the locker room, we all said, ‘grab a snack, because we’re going five.’ We were in that for the long run.”
Kiara Reinhardt and Keeley Davis work hard at the net to defend Nebraska (Juszyk / WBR) $Click to Buy$
The unprecedented comeback set the stage for a winner-take-all fifth set between the Bluejays and Huskers.
Creighton got off to a strong start with kills by Davis, Martin, and Sis in building a 5-3 lead, but Nebraska ripped off a 6-1 run to pull in front by three. A kill by Schmitt and an ace by senior libero Allison Whitten trimmed the deficit to one, but a net violation that held up video review made it 11-9, then four straight kills — two by Lauenstein, who finished with a match-high and career-high 25 — put the upset bid on ice.
Three players in Creighton uniforms ended the night with a double-double as sophomore setter Kendra Wait finished with a match-high 45 assists and a season-high 18 digs, while her classmate Norah Sis had 15 kills and a season-high 13 digs. Davis led the way offensively with a team-best and season-high 19 kills on .277 hitting, while adding 15 digs defensively.
In the end, regardless of how tightly contested the match turned out to be, Creighton gets saddled with its second loss of this young season. One that will sting for a minute because of how close they came to finally flipping the script on their rival Huskers. But as much as a loss is about identifying deficiencies and working tirelessly to shore them up as the season marches on, there is also sometimes a silver lining.
The Bluejays want to go to the Final Four. They want to go back in The CHI in December. In the pursuit of that goal, a fiercely competitive, five-set loss to the No. 2 ranked team in the country isn’t void of positive markers to build upon.
“I’ve never been a coach that’s about black and white,” Booth said. “Some people think if you didn’t win there isn’t any good. I think you can find good and bad in wins and losses. We definitely see a lot of good things that we did tonight … we also see things that are learning opportunities. We are two and a half weeks into the season. It’s a long journey and I said this in the locker room, I love this group. I wouldn’t want to go on this journey with any other group. They are really special young women, and I think we have the potential to do some great things.”