The arena was full of buzz Friday night as the Creighton Volleyball team took on the last place team in the conference in the Bradley Braves. The Bluejays took the match from the Bradley in four games– 25-20, 21-25, 25-15, 25-18 win.
During the first two games, the Bluejays looked a little off. Whether it was jitters with the large crowd or the anticipation of #12 Northern Iowa coming to town Saturday night, the Bluejays went into the intermission with things tied at 1. “It becomes the same thing we have been struggling with which is consistency,” said head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. However, they came out of the break with a lot of energy and easily put away the Braves in the final two games.
“We definitely talked about how we were giving away too many points at the beginning of the game,” said junior setter Megan Bober. “They were controlling on our side and we needed to step up. It was definitely just a lack of communication on our side. We were giving up too many point early and couldn’t get into a rhythm.”
Bober made more history tonight with her fourth triple-double of the season with 13 kills, 35 assists and 10 digs. Senior Laurel Sanford also had 13 kills in the match, really coming on in the final two games to lead the Bluejays to their twelve straight win against Bradley.
“The last half of the fourth game, we finally got into a rhythm. We’ve gotten into a rhythm a few times this season, but we haven’t done it consistently. That is where we have to continue to improve.” Booth continued. “I think overall we hit pretty well tonight. Early in the fourth game we were missing too many serves. Against a team like this we need to serve in the court so we can hopefully go on some runs.”
But it was Bober and Sanford’s leadership that brought things together for the Bluejays. Booth had a lot of praise for the upperclassmen. “That’s experience to some degree. Both of them have been in situations where you have to step up during crunch time and I think they are both capable of doing it.” Bober opened things up in the fourth game with her surprise second hit kills and kept Bradley off balance. “Laurel has carried a lot of load offensively and we are trying to find ways to get the ball more to her.”
Creighton will have quite the challenge on Saturday night when the Panthers come to town. An all-time 3-38 record against Northern Iowa always looms, but the last time Northern Iowa lost a conference game, it was against the Bluejays in 2008. “We’re going to make some changes specific to Northern Iowa,” said Booth. “We do that against every team as far as what their tendencies are and maybe we will have some success there. They have a great team–one of the best defensive teams in the country, good offensive parity with 2.4 to 2.7 kills a game for all of their hitters and then an active setter. We’re going to have to be balanced.”
Coach Booth said she was headed to watch Bluejay Madness.
Here is a photo gallery from tonight’s match.