It wouldn’t be melodramatic to surmise that some of Creighton’s players were inconsolable, despite the best efforts of their loved ones, after last Sunday’s five-set loss to No. 4 Louisville in the championship match of the Cardinal Classic. It was a lengthy and challenging week bookended by gut-wrenching setbacks to the Cardinals and in-state rival Nebraska that stuck to an eerily similar script — a slow start, a sustained surge, and a nosedive at the end. A true roller coaster of not just emotions, but performance as well.
Creighton’s season began by publicly stating that they are gunning for gold — a Final Four and a national championship, two things that have never been done before in the history of the program and in the latter’s case, the history of the school. In order to convince outsiders, and perhaps even themselves to a degree, that they have as much right as anyone to set such ambitious goals they knew it would come down to three L’s in September — Lincoln, Louisville, and Lawrence. Three places away from the comfortable confines of their home gym where four Top 10 teams awaited them in Nebraska, Louisville, Purdue, and Kansas.
They failed the first two tests. The third, they aced.
After spending a week mending wounded wings, the Bluejays flew into Lawrence (technically they bused, but you get the picture) and stomped out a pair of loud statements in the form of a four-set win over No. 6 Purdue on Friday and then a lopsided sweep of previously unbeaten No. 10 Kansas on Saturday. Against the Huskers and Cardinals, Creighton dropped the first two sets in relatively similar fashion then looked like a completely different team in forcing the matches to a deciding fifth set before falling short. Based on the performances against the Boilermakers and Jayhawks, where they took three of the four opening sets before intermission, it was apparent that the Jays learned from those costly starts.
“We talked a lot about those first and second sets and coming out right away instead of kind of working into it like we have been the past couple weeks,” senior outside hitter Norah Sis told reporters after the Kansas match. “Our third sets apparently have been very, very strong throughout the whole year, so we talked about starting that way right away at point one in the first set. Yesterday, we did that in the first set, and then lost second one, and today, we got both of them. So, progress!”
Creighton brought a contingent of fans to Kansas this weekend (Photo courtesy of Matt DeMarinis)
Over half a thousand Creighton fans found their way to Lawrence to make a Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena a home away from home environment on Friday. They watched as the Bluejays, who feature four players from the state of Kansas, notch 22 kills in a 25-21 first set win over Purdue. A controversial call and an improved blocking performance allowed the Boilermakers to take over late in set two and cruise to a 25-17 win to draw even at the break. But CU hit .538 in 25-16 third set blowout to take a 2-1 match lead, then rode the arm of junior outside hitter Ava Martin and the playmaking of senior setter Kendra Wait to save two set points to seal the match with a 27-25 win in the fourth.
Purdue entered the match ranked second nationally with 3.35 blocks per set and not only did Creighton hit .274 with 63 kills against them, but they also out-blocked the Boilermakers 12-9.
“We think we’re a pretty disciplined blocking team too,” head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “They were really trying to attack the line, and Kendra did a great job of sealing that. And then both Elise and Kiara are phenomenal blockers, Jaya got a huge block, and Norah and Ava both came up with some. It’s been a big point of emphasis in our gym, and it is great to see them have some success tonight.”
Saturday’s match against the Big 12 preseason favorite was much less of a friendly environment for Creighton, but their offense was more than up to the challenge with 15 kills on .378 hitting in the first, 18 kills on .389 hitting in the second, and 20 kills on .514 hitting out of the locker room in the third, while not allowing a Kansas that came into the match ranked in the top two nationally in attack percentage to clear .230 in any set.
The Bluejays rolled to the sweep via scores of 25-17, 25-19, and 25-17. They outscored the Jayhawks 15-6 at end game, something that has been a major focus for CU going all the way back to the summer.
“We talk about ‘edge zone’ all the time,” Martin said. “It’s kind of our thing. When we get to 20-20, that’s where we really lock in and tell ourselves we need to go out and dominate. There are a couple other things, but just go out and finish the game. I think we’re really good at that because we’ve been focusing on it so much, and it’s kind of our theme for the year. When it gets to 20-20, we all talk about edge and say this is the time that we really need to turn it on, dominate, and finish the game.”
Martin and Sis combined to average 8.29 kills per set on .292 hitting between them over the two matches. Wait had a major impact across the board with her defense, distributing, and serving pressure to the tune of per set averages of 13.71 assists, 3.71 digs, 1.29 blocks, and 0.86 kills. Defensively, senior libero Maddy Bilinovic and sophomore defensive specialist Sydney Breissinger anchored Creighton’s back row with steady and consistent ballhandling and playmaking in both serve receive and as catalysts for their team’s transition attack.
The most significant aspect of Creighton’s weekend though was the performance of their rotation of middle blockers and opposite hitters in seniors Kiara Reinhardt and Elise Goetzinger and redshirt freshman Jaya Johnson.
That trio produced 43.9% of Creighton’s kills against the Boilermakers and Jayhawks while combining for a .415 attack percentage. The Jays can be a really good team on its own when Sis and Martin are on point, but they rise to an elite tier when Reinhardt, Goetzinger, and Johnson are also in the mix.
“We know that for us to be great long term, we have to get production from everywhere,” Booth said. “In fact, one of our things on the scout was, if we get into an outside [hitter] game only, that’s going to be in KU’s favor. We need to lean into our parity … we tried to adjust some things with Jaya. Again, Jaya as new to this position. We’re trying to learn things. We’re debating on when to add some new sets and things along those lines, so that’s kind of fun. I thought Kiara had a great weekend after she and Kendra together had struggled some, so that was a big focus in practice. It was good to see those areas that we know we need more production from that we were able to get that against two really good teams.”
As of the conclusion of Saturday’s sweep, Creighton had compiled a 9-2 record against what was rated as the toughest schedule in the country, according to the unofficial RPI rankings. Although the Jays haven’t been perfect through the first month of the season, they have positioned themselves to accomplish everything they set out to achieve.
“I told the team that they’ve just had a phenomenal non-conference,” Booth said. “Obviously we wish we would have notched another win or two — those other ones were close. But I think we’ve developed. I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves. Our first goal always is to put ourselves in a position to make the NCAA tournament. I think we’ve clearly done that. Then it’s to host, and we’ve put ourselves, at this point — I mean, it’s a long season ahead, but we’ve done what we needed to do to give ourselves that opportunity.
“Now we enter a very rigorous, taxing, Big East season where teams are just shooting to take you out. You’re the one that’s the hunted, so we have to [adjust] our mindset and also be locked into improving every week in the gym and really be focused on us a lot, as compared to who’s on the other side sometimes.”