(Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Camarati)
Survive and advance. This time of the year it’s not about style points anymore. That’s why despite not playing their best match of the season, the No. 16-seed Creighton volleyball team settled for “good enough” to move one step closer to their ultimate goal of a Sweet Sixteen berth with a 29-27, 23-25, 25-22, 25-22 four-set victory over Coastal Carolina (25-5, 14-0 Big South) in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Friday evening at Carmichael Arena.
“I know this year we have a lot of expectations behind us, so we might have come out a little bit nervous, but we worked through that,” junior outside hitter Jess Bird said. “We knew Coastal Carolina was going to be a great team, so we really worked through it to get the win.”
Offense carried the day for the Bluejays (26-8, 17-1 Big East) as they hit .308 as a team and only committed 11 attacked in the entire match. Freshman outside hitter Jaali Winters led her team with 20 kills to go along with 10 digs to earn her team-leading 15th double-double of the season. Bird wasn’t far behind Winters, finishing with 16 kills and 14 digs. Redshirt junior middle blocker Lauren Smith was the third and final Bluejay in double figures as she ended up with 11 kills and zero attack errors on her 20 swings, while also helping out at the net with four blocks.
“After we figured out how they were block scheming us the middles really got going. That really helped open up the pins,” senior setter Maggie Baumert said. She finished with a match-high 55 assists, and allowed five different players to get at least 15 sets via her distribution.
“They’re a different team than we’re used to. In conference we had played each team twice and we knew exactly what they were going to bring,” she added. “This was a new team, and we were excited to get that, but I think it took a few sets for us to get into our rhythm.”
Creighton relied on their outside hitters, Winters and Bird, often in the first set. The two combined for 31 of the team’s 47 total attacks in the opening game and helped Creighton build a seven-point lead and even get to set point at 24-19. Coastal Carolina proved to be a salty bunch, especially when it came to end of game situations, however. The Chanticleers, winners of 18 matches in a row coming into the day, saved five set points and eventually took leads of 25-24 and 26-25 as they tried to steal the first set from the Bluejays after trailing the entire way up to that point.
Two kills by Kloth and a net violation call against Coastal Carolina freshman, and Lincoln, Nebraska native, Sarah Boothe allowed Creighton to survive, 29-27. A big result in hindsight, according to Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth.
“I thought game one was huge,” Booth said. “We were up, they make the run to tie it back up, and for us to make some kills and win that game I think probably was the difference in the match, especially knowing that they came back and won game two.”
The second set was tight and featured five ties in the early going, but a couple kills by Coastal Carolina sophomore outside hitter Leah Hardeman helped put Creighton in a hole that they couldn’t climb out of the rest of the set. It also showed that the underdog Chanticleers weren’t going to roll over for the nationally seeded Bluejays, a tone they set with the furious rally at the end of game one.
“It was just like practice,” Hardeman said of the toughness her team showed in rallying back. “We play a game “18-21” all the time, and I feel like we knew that we could fight back. I was really surprised and really happy that my entire team was all fighting at the same time for every ball and every point.
“I think that once we did come back we knew that we were in it. We were kind of still figuring out how we fit into this game, and once we knew that we could fight back there was nothing stopping us at all.”
The third set proved to be the bend or break game. There were ten ties, even as late as 15-15 as both teams traded blows after making adjustments in the locker room during intermission. In the end, it was Creighton’s block and how they were able to set it up better than the first two games that helped them stay in front in the critical game and eventually pull out a 25-22 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
They only ended up with three team blocks in the set, but they constantly had hands in front of hitters and made sure that Coastal Carolina didn’t exploit any holes or get clean swings at their back row players.
“We had to get touches on the block,” Booth said of what the team needed to do better after intermission. “Obviously ace blocks are great, but we had to get touches on their hitters. With [Eszter Nagy] and [Annayka Legros] if you don’t get a touch on that ball it’s going down. [Nagy] in league play was hitting around .470 — she’s a special player. We didn’t feel like they were hitting over us as much as we anticipated; we thought they were hitting around us, so we really talked with our blockers about getting over the net and dropping the hand, and trying to get the ball on their side of the net.”
Nagy and Legros, Coastal Carolina’s middle blockers, came into the match with a combined .405 attack percentage on 790 swings this season. On 44 total attacks against the Bluejays on Friday, the duo hit just .159.
“I look at the statistics and see that they stopped our middles,” Coastal Carolina head coach Jozsef Forman said. “This was a key point of the game I think. Their blocking was the difference.”
The fourth set was taken over by Jess Bird. The Second Team All-Big East selection had seven kills on 11 swings to go along with three digs to help make sure the scrappy Chanticleers wouldn’t be hanging around to see a fifth set.
“I think Jess has really hit her stride in the last month or so, and is really consistently bringing that,” Booth said. “One of the things we talked to Maggie about is keeping that tempo. I think Jess really likes to fly into the ball, and I thought we kind of got that rhythm going toward the end of the match.
“We talked about using our middles a little bit more to create those holes. Marysa [Wilkinson] got going some toward the end on that middle attack, which just makes their middles hesitate a second longer, and leaves that hole. Both Jess and Jaali, if that gap is there, they do a pretty good job of putting the ball down.”
The Bluejays led for most of the game before a service error finished off Coastal Carolina, 25-22, and sent Creighton into the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013, and fourth time overall since 2010. The win by the Bluejays also snapped Coastal Carolina’s 18-match winning streak dating back to September 22nd and included a Big South regular season title and conference tournament title.
Listen to the Postgame Press Conference with head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Maggie Baumert, Jess Bird, and Lauren Smith
Coastal Carolina press conference
Freshmen Duo Shine on Big Stage
There was a lot of excitement surrounding Creighton’s incoming 2015 class of freshmen talent. Two of them, Jaali Winters and Taryn Kloth, made their NCAA Tournament debuts against Coastal Carolina.
Kloth, a top 20 recruit, finished with nine kills and a .400 attack percentage to go along with three blocks. Winters led the Bluejays with 20 kills against the Chanticleers, and is now just three kills away from tying Leah Ratzlaff for the most kills by a Creighton player in a single season, which currently stands at 516.
Despite it being their first NCAA Tournament match, head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth didn’t lose much sleep worrying about how her young duo would handle the situation.
“I really was not concerned about that,” Booth said. “I think both of them have played high level ball. They’ve won championships in both their club and high school; both of them were state champions at the high school level, and both of them have won a club national championship. Fortunately I felt they have been in different experiences in this and that they would stay composed, and I think we saw that tonight. They both did a great job.”
Winters, who recently won Big East Freshman of the Year, said that while this may have been another first for her, she doesn’t feel like a rookie anymore. A fact made most evident by her approach to the match. Earlier in the season she recalled conversations with her father James, a former basketball player at the University of Iowa. Those talks, she said, helped her develop the mindset she has carried out onto the court this season. Entering Friday she didn’t need any help.
“There really weren’t any conversations with anyone,” Winters said. “My mom texted me today and asked me if I was excited, and I said I felt pretty normal, I felt like this was every other game, because I’ve treated every other game this season like it’s the most important match of the year. I really just came out to play like it was any other day.”
For Kloth, the pressure wasn’t so much on her and Winters to step up in their postseason debuts, but rather on the entire team to perform under the expectations that come with being a national seed despite having to travel halfway across the country instead of just down the street from their dorms.
“The whole team kind of felt pressure,” Kloth said. “It’s been controversial with our seeding and stuff, so we wanted to just go out there and play the game that we know how to play.
“Coach talked about how we were expected to win, but we still had to come out and play, and we had to play our game.”
Listen to the full postgame interview with Jaali Winters
Listen to the full postgame interview with Jaali Winters.
Tar Heels Advance
Creighton may be the favorite in the regional if you go by seeding, but it’s actually North Carolina (21-9, 17-3 ACC), currently ranked 23rd in the AVCA Coaches’ Poll, that gets the luxury of hosting. They defended their home court on Friday night and got a little revenge in the process by sweeping a UNC Wilmington team that defeated them in five sets back on September 11.
The Tar Heel took the first two sets from the visiting Seahawks (24-8, 12-4 CAA), then fell behind 16-8 in the third set before rallying to win 25-21 and complete the sweep.
Creighton players and coaches stuck around to scout their potential opponents and get a taste of what they will be facing in Saturday evening’s second round match.
“It’s a great team; really physical, big, strong team,” Kirsten Bernthal Booth said of the Tar Heels. “They’ve got some big weapons, and they’re a very good blocking team. It’ll be a tough one.”
Joe Sagula, now in his 26th year as North Carolina’s head coach, had similar things to say about the Bluejays when asked about the match up after the win over UNC Wilmington. However, he also added that he sees some things that the Tar Heels can take advantage of when the two teams meet up on the court.
“They’re a good team. They are definitely a top 16 seed,” Sagula said of the Bluejays. “They’re a physical team. Their two outside hitters are their leaders offensively, but their middles have good size; their right side is a big blocker. They’re well-balanced, although I’ve watched a couple matches where their go-to players are their outsides, the left side players. We’re going to have to be ready for that, but they’ve got some things I think we can work on. We need to play the type of defense we played tonight, and serve tough tomorrow, and there are some things we can exploit.”
Creighton on Doorstep of History
From the moment their 2014 season ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last December all the way through their 2015 season, the Bluejays have preached about the process — getting better day by day, with each workout, with each practice, with each match.
They set goals and started working to achieve them. One by one they crossed them off as the season moved along.
Not just compete with, but beat top teams and build a strong NCAA Tournament resume: Done.
Win the Big East regular season title: Done.
Win the Big East conference tournament, especially in front of their home fans at D.J. Sokol Arena: Done.
Get to the NCAA Tournament: Done.
Make it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in program history: …
On Saturday evening, in hostile territory, against the North Carolina Tar Heels, they’ll get their chance. It’s the last thing remaining on their to-do list. It’s what they’ve talked about the most. It’s a place the program has never been.
The players put a lot of pressure on themselves to reach this point. They had to get through 34 matches and they took their lumps along the way. They’ve fought through injuries, losses, and role changes. When they take the court against the Tar Heels, their head coach wants them to enjoy it.
“We know we’re going to play a great opponent,” Booth said. “It should be a blast. This is just a really special group to me. My goal for them, regardless of winning or losing, is that they have a blast and play at the top level that they can play.
“I don’t think we hit that tonight — I think we hit that close last weekend, and I think they’ll be ready to go tomorrow night. We’ll be ready for a battle.”
Middle blocker Lauren Smith, a redshirt junior in her fourth year in the program, has seen how close the Bluejays have come to raising the bar just a little higher for the program. When asked what needs to happen on Saturday in order to go where no other Creighton volleyball team has gone, the native Nebraskan kept it simple.
“One point and one set at a time. Together.”
Listen to Pre-game interviews from both the Creighton and North Carolina head coaches.