(Photo Credit: PrettySporty/Cheryl Treworgy)
It is said that programs on the rise have to get knocked down a few times before they figure out how to break through to the next level. Creighton Volleyball is as good of an example of that as any. After bowing out in the second round three times in the last five seasons, the Bluejays broke through, emphatically, on Saturday afternoon with a 30-32, 25-18, 25-18, 25-14 throttling of 23rd-ranked North Carolina to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in program history.
“This is a very very very special group to me,” Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “For them to be the first team to go to the Sweet 16 for our program it’s hard to even put into words right now.”
Creighton, winners of 22 of their last 23 matches, built late momentum even in dropping a thrilling, back and forth first set, then ran away with the rest of the match, each set looking more dominant than the last at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill, N.C.
“We knew we were playing a great team today in North Carolina, and they are a great team. They caught us on a really great night from our end,” Booth said. “I thought defensively we were outstanding tonight. We were really locked in.”
The Bluejays celebrate after the win over North Carolina. (Photo Credit: PrettySporty/Cheryl Treworgy)
The Tar Heels hit .300 in the first set, but didn’t come close to matching that in either of the next three games. The Bluejays had 11.5 team blocks, led by junior middle blocker Lauren Smith who finished with a match-high five block assists to go along with her 15 kills and .452 attack percentage.
Smith wasn’t the only who stepped up for the Bluejays on Saturday, either. Senior setter Maggie Baumert tied her season-high with 55 assists for the second consecutive match to go along with 12 digs for her ninth double-double of the season, and sixth in the last eight matches. Sophomore middle blocker Marysa Wilkinson had 11 kills and four blocks. Freshman outside hitter Taryn Kloth nine kills and four blocks.
Along with Kloth, Creighton got a monster performance from another newcomer with Big East Freshman of the Year Jaali Winters dropping a match-high 21 kills to go along with a career-high 21 digs.
“Jaali played great. As a freshman, my hats off to her. She really did a good job,” North Carolina head coach Joe Sagula. “I thought in the first set we had her a bit, but she got some momentum and she ended up with 21 kills tonight, which is amazing. She’s got a great future ahead of her. She just started having every angle. We had a difficult time containing her and blocking her.”
North Carolina entered the NCAA Tournament ranked tied for third in the country with 3.12 blocks per set — they finished with five for the entire match against Creighton. Tar Heels senior middle hitter Paige Neuenfeldt, who became the school’s all-time leader in blocks during the first round win over UNC Wilmington on Friday night, didn’t record a single solo block or block assist against the Bluejays on Saturday.
Creighton hit at a .286 clip for the entire match, including a white-hot .438 mark in the critical third set to take a 2-1 lead in the match after intermission.
“I thought everybody stepped up. I thought everyone had great matches,” Kirsten Bernthal Booth. “I think people target Jaali from a serve/receive perspective, because she’s got the freshman label on her forehead, and I thought she really passed well tonight. I thought that was huge to our success. I think Maggie had a lot of different options. I thought Lauren Smith had a phenomenal night tonight, we really got her involved. Marysa had a phenomenal night. Taryn moved to the outside, which she hasn’t played since high school. Mel comes in and gets a bunch of kills, so I definitely think it was a team effort, and I think Maggie did a great job distributing the ball.”
Mel, as the team refers to her, is senior outside hitter, and defensive specialist, and serving specialist, and anything her teams needs her to be, Melanie Jereb. While the Bluejays were in the process of battling back from a 20-15 deficit, junior outside hitter Jess Bird injured her ankle when she got tangled up with a teammate during a scramble to save a point. Bird would leave the match under her own power, but did not return. That moved Jereb, who normally patrols the back row for the Bluejays, up to Bird’s spot on the outside. She finished with four kills and 10 digs.
For those on the outside looking in, Jereb’s performance may have been a surprise, but to her teammates it was just another day — one they needed in order to overcome the Tar Heels.
“The strength of that kid and her mind is honestly sometimes how we get through matches,” senior libero Kate Elman said. “She’s does what’s asked of her, and if it’s not what she wants, then she’s cheering for the other person. That’s the best thing that she has brought to this program. She stepped up big today. I don’t think we could have won that without her. She did a great job.”
Over the course of Jereb’s four-year career any time Kirsten Bernthal Booth is asked about her she almost always starts off her response the same way, by talking about the Cary, Illinois native’s selflessness, and the example she sets for the rest of the team.
“I think we’ve got a team of selfless players and she leads the charge,” Booth said. “She has played every single role, but the thing that people don’t see is that she comes with the same attitude every single day regardless of what her role is going to be. She’s battled a back injury, so she’s not hitting or blocking in practice right now, because we’re trying to give her the opportunity to be able to play in the back row. To have her get this, these are moments that she’ll remember for the rest of her life, and so will we. To see her step up and do so great was awesome.”
Jereb, who failed miserably to hold back tears while Booth described what she means to her teammates, said she never had any doubts that her team could keep pushing even with one of their top players sidelined and North Carolina leading 1-0 in the match.
“I was just really excited, and I knew that my teammates would step up and that we just keep fighting and that would give us fire to fight through it — we’ll do it for Bird, we’ll do it for each other — I think that was what was on my mind and everyone’s mind when we stepped on the court for game two.”
Just as it has all season, that mindset trickled down from the most experienced players who found themselves in a second-round NCAA Tournament match, to the players who were on that stage for the first time as Creighton Bluejays, players like their 6-foot-2 freshman superstar from Ankeny, Iowa.
“Every time we’ve been down in a set we always fight, we always come back,” Winters said. “That’s just the way we do it.”
The Bluejays never trailed the host Tar Heels after the sixth point in either of the second or third sets, and they with a 2-1 lead in the match they finished off their historic victory by leading wire to wire in the fourth and final game.
While it started to feel like a countdown to the celebration by the midway point of the fourth set for those watching off the court, those in uniform got a little lost in the competition, at least until “match point” was announced.
“I honestly had no clue what the score was the whole time,” Jereb said. “But at the very end I started getting jittery on that last game point.”
Lauren Smith got the clinching kill, spiking a shot off a North Carolina back row player and kicking off a celebration years in the making.
“We need to think of everyone that’s been in the program the past five years,” senior serving specialist Lizzy Stivers said. “The senior class last year and the year before us, that’s who’s built this program. We finished it for them. I think everyone that has been a part of Creighton Volleyball has really worked for this.”
Stivers is still obviously close with some of her former teammates such as Katie Neisler and Kelli Browning, who were seniors on last year’s Creighton team. She said they all spoke after the first-round win over Coastal Carolina, and their message was clear.
“They just said, ‘Go take it. Do it for everyone,'” Stivers recalled. “Their key words were: ‘Go win it. You guys have an opportunity this weekend and you need to take it.’ We did it for each other, and I think that’s what Creighton Volleyball is about; we’re doing it for each other.”
So, for the first time in school history, the Bluejay Volleyball team has advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Now what’s next?
“USC,” Elman said. “USC is next. The Elite Eight. That’s our next goal, and I think the way that we played today and the way that we came out and we played for each other, we have a good shot.”
The Trojans are the top overall seed in the tournament. The Bluejays will head out to San Diego to meet them for a 10:00 p.m. match next Friday in which the winner will move on to face the winner of the match between No. 9 Kansas and Loyola Marymount with a berth in the Final Four on the line.
The match up between No. 16 Creighton and No. 1 USC will be a rematch of a contest back on September 4th, which the Trojans won in a 3-0 sweep. Creighton didn’t have the full services of Maggie Baumert or Taryn Kloth for that match, and both have been strong down the stretch. Needless to say, the battle-tested Bluejays won’t be celebrating their historic weekend for very long. As they’ve said all season long after crossing off each goal, there is still more to do.
“We’ve played USC. We have played the top teams in the country,” Booth said. “We know they’re phenomenal, but we’re not going out there to sunbathe in San Diego. We’re going out there to play great volleyball. I want them to really enjoy this tonight, but we’re going to refocus and we’re going to be ready to compete come Friday night.”
Listen to the postgame press conference with Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Maggie Baumert, Melanie Jereb, and Jaali Winters.
Listen to the postgame interview with North Carolina head coach Joe Sagula.
Listen to postgame interview with senior Lizzy Stivers
Listen to postgame interview with senior Ashley Jansen
Listen to postgame interview with senior Kate Elman.