Norah Sis took over after Jaela Zimmerman went down Thursday night against Ole Miss (WBR / Juszyk) $CLICK TO BUY$
Only state-of-the-art military submarines make more noise than what you could hear inside D.J. Sokol Arena after Ole Miss won a long rally early in the second set to pull within a point at 10-9. All 2,351 fans, every player, coach, and staff member from both teams were watching the left side of the floor as Creighton senior outside hitter Jaela Zimmerman clutched at her left knee. Zimmerman was down for several minutes before being helped off the court by team trainers, tears streaming down her face and unable to straighten out her leg.
To that point, Creighton’s captain had accounted for 10 of her team’s 20 kills, five of which had come in a white-hot start set two. No season is free from adversity, and right there, in their most important match to date, the Bluejays were faced with their toughest challenge. Like most of their previous tests in a fall campaign that produced a school-record 30 wins and saw them earn a #14 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, these Jays aced it again.
Creighton outscored Ole Miss 40-19 the rest of the match to sweep the Rebels 25-21, 25-15, 25-13, improving to 31-3 in the process and earning a second-round date with Kansas at 7:00 p.m. on their home floor on Friday night.
Kiana Schmitt showcased Creighton’s depth as she came in after Zimmerman’s injury (WBR / Juszyk) $CLICK TO BUY$
“Bittersweet,” Kirsten Bernthal Booth said after the match. “I thought we played a really clean match. Some of our best offensive work. But I’d be lying if there wasn’t a lot of heartbreak also. Jaela has been such an integral part of this year and many other seasons, so we’re hurting for that.
“With that said, one of our strengths that we’ve talked about all year is our depth. Kiana coming in was putting a seasoned veteran on the court, so it wasn’t like we threw in a newbie. We’ll be ready to go tomorrow night and now we’re playing for our teammate. I think when Jaela went down they were playing for her and you saw an inspired team.”
Big East Freshman of the Year and conference tournament Most Outstanding Player Norah Sis recorded 12 of her match-best 16 kills after watching her captain get taken out of the match.
“I was just thinking about everything she would be saying to me,” Sis said of what went through her mind after the injury. “Before every set she always high-fives me and says, ‘let’s go, kiddo.’ … I was just going out there, stepping up for her, and swinging away.”
Swing away she did. Not only were her 16 kills six more than anyone else who played in the match, but she got them on a .444 attack percentage and did not commit a single hitting error on her 36 swings, not to mention the 10 digs and two blocks she came up with on the defensive side of the ledger.
“She has an amazing career ahead of her,” Ole Miss head coach Kayla Banwarth said of the Papillion, Nebraska native. “She’s very talented and her versatility offensively is tough to stop. She’s obviously one of the most talented freshmen in the country and I personally look forward to seeing her career play out. It’s going to be a very special one.”
The first set was between the Jays and Rebels was a firefight. Creighton hit .423 as a team, while Ole Miss ended game one at .312. They combined for 30 kills on 58 swings as neither team was able to successfully disrupt the other.
The second and third sets told a different story. While the Bluejays combined to hit .337 and only commit five attack errors on their 83 combined swings that covered the final two sets, Ole Miss’ attack percentage sat at .079 on the 76 swings they took in the second and third set.
“I knew that some team was not going to be able to sustain the numbers that we were doing in the first part of that first game,” Booth said. “I felt confident that we’d figure out their tempo. We tried to simulate it in practice, and it was hard in practice too, but I thought we’d eventually figure it out, and we did and made some digs. When something is a little bit different sometimes it takes a little while to kind of get and I thought we did eventually.”
The win propels Creighton into the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in the last 12 seasons. They’ll face off against Kansas at 7:00 p.m. at D.J. Sokol Arena on Friday night. Prior to the Jays taking down Ole Miss, the Jayhawks (17-11) made quick work of a 22-win Oregon squad in a 3-0 sweep that featured no lead changes at any point.
“Man, they were good tonight,” Booth said of KU. “I think most people thought if it was going to be a sweep it was going to be Oregon that would getting it. KU looked crazy good. They did everything well. They passed well, they served well, they mixed up shots, defensively — I mean they just wore Oregon down, and Oregon is such a physical team. I think they were pretty stoked about the way they played. Our staff is close with their staff. We went and gave them a big hug prior [to our match] and I told them I’m either going to be in a really bad mood after this match or you’re going to be the enemy after this match, so I wanted to be able to I tell them beforehand how happy I was for those guys.
“It’ll be a battle tomorrow, but we’re excited for the opportunity.”