When the Missouri Valley Conference released its preseason poll in August, the Creighton volleyball team was picked to finish fourth behind Northern Iowa, Missouri State, and Wichita State. Three months later, the Bluejays are on the verge of winning an outright MVC title and establishing new program records in several win categories heading into the final weekend of MVC play.
Head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth has talked all season about the Bluejays taking one match at a time, a strategy that’s proved successful as the Jays have lost only three matches. Two of those three matches were against fellow opponents in the top 25, Kansas and Kansas State, with the third coming against conference foe Southern Illinois. Since the loss to the Salukis, the Bluejays have reeled off 12 straight wins and have found themselves over the past two weeks ranked in the top 25 for the first time in program history.
“It is really rewarding. That is stuff that we will reflect on afterward,” said Bernthal Booth. “I love these girls and love them as people. They have gone through difficult stages. Megan [Bober] was here when we were playing at the Civic Auditorium. I think anytime you care about people you want them to end playing well. But what I said to them is that we want to be a sweet sixteen team, down the road. It is not about talking about that now. After the fact we will look back and see what we have accomplished.”
The other recurring them this season is the chemistry between the players on this year’s squad. A turning point in the win against Illinois State last weekend gave a great display in players accepting their role whatever it may be.
Freshman Ashley Jansen started the season playing a lot of the defensive rotations for the Bluejays. Early into conference season, Jansen was replaced in the lineup by sophomore Katie Neisler and the same lineup has been in place since then with Jansen playing sparingly. However, in the third set last Saturday against the Redbirds with the match tied 1-1 and the Bluejays down 24-23, Jansen was inserted into the match for the first time to serve. In her only action of the night Jansen helped stave off match point and served the final three points to help Creighton not only win the set, but give the momentum that carried the Bluejays to an eventual 3-1 win clinching at least a share of the MVC regular season title.
“I think our scout side has beat our starting side a lot this year. That is not always the case and we don’t usually have that kind of depth. I trust all of the scout team. I think their teammates trust them. I think they trust themselves. Another reason for our success is that our starters are getting challenged every day in practice. I definitely trust all of those kids that maybe aren’t getting all the playing time. [Ashley] comes in ice-cold at 23-24 and serves three big points.”
Standing in the way of an outright MVC championship is the final weekend in conference play facing Wichita State and Missouri State. A win over either team will give Creighton their first MVC championship in Volleyball and the top seed in the MVC Tournament down in Springfield, Missouri next week.
“Our focus will be solely on Wichita State. They average about three thousand fans, so I would guess we would get four to five thousand or even six on Friday night. I always tell my players this is what it is about, the big matches,” said Bernthal Booth. “They are playing well and it will be a battle.”
Senior Megan Bober echoed those sentiments.
“It would be a huge momentum swing if we could come out with a win on Friday night and [win] the title right away,” said the senior setter. “We just want to come out and play our best and hopefully get the win and take that into Saturday night and finish off our regular season against Missouri State.”
The Bluejays opened conference play against the Bears and the Shockers setting the stage for the rest of the season handling them easily 3-1 and 3-0 respectively in September. The Jays know that it will be tough this weekend with the matches away from Sokol Arena. The final weekend test will give them a sense for what they will be up against a week from now.
Bober and her 122 career and consecutive starts, along with senior teammates Heather Thorson and Brooke Boggs, have tasted the NCAA Tournament and are ready to go back. But they must take care of business against the Shockers and Bears to finish the regular season.
“It’s a good feeling, but that’s not what we are focused on right now,” said Bober. “We still have a Valley championship ahead of us we want to win. Those are our goals. It’s nice but we need to focus on what we need to do.
“We want to come in focused because we have a really tough weekend facing two good Valley teams,” said Bober. “We have to be prepared right away on Friday night.”
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Creighton signs two, a third likely on the way
After this season, the Bluejays will have some roster spots to fill with the departures of Bober, Thorson, Boggs, and junior Natalie Hackbarth. A few of those spots were filled in on Thursday.
Bennington star Jess Bird signed with the Bluejays in a ceremony at her school. The 6-food outside hitter earned first team All-State honors last year as a junior. She was ranked as the nation’s #73 recruit by prepvolleyball.com and decided to stay in her home state with Creighton.
The other signee is Kenzie Crawford, a 5-8 setter from Grand Rapids, Michigan. The first Creighton Bluejay volleyball player from the state of Michigan, she is expected to redshirt next season with to-be junior Michelle Sicner likely to take over the setter role. With Bernthal Booth being a setter herself back in her playing days, Crawford is likely to learn a lot watching next season similar to what Megan Bober did her freshman season.
Although not announced in the Creighton press release, it appears from other sources that the Bluejays will get at least a third new player on the roster next season with Amanda Foji from Omaha Duchesne slated to join the team as a walk-on. At 5’5″ she likely will play a defensive role when she joins the squad in the fall.
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Notes and Media Menu
- Both matches this weekend will be broadcast on the radio. Friday’s match against Wichita State will be on the Mighty 1290 AM starting at 7:00 p.m. The match on Saturday against Missouri State will be on 1180 The Zone2 at 7:00 p.m.
- Follow the live stats against Wichita State and against Missouri State.
- Wichita State ranks 7th nationally in home attendance averaging 2,909 fans per match.
- The first set winner of a Creighton-Wichita State matchup has won 16 of the past 18 meetings and 20 of the past 23.
- Missouri State is hosting next week’s MVC tournament but this weekend will determine if they are the 4th, 5th or 6th seed.
- Missouri State is also 30-8 against the Bluejays all-time, 15-3 in Springfield. However, in the past 10 meetings, the record is even at 5-5.
- Freshman libero Kate Elman has 10 or more digs in 27 consecutive matches, a school record.