This is the second installment of White & Blue Review’s 2010 Creighton volleyball season preview. Join us every day this week as we take a look at each part of Kirsten Bernthal Booth’s club, leading up to the start of their season and the Blue-White Scrimmage on Saturday, August 21.
Sanford and Thorson expected to lead
In 2009, the middle blocker position was the deepest and most experienced position for the Bluejays heading into the season. The opposite is true heading into the 2010 season, during which some newcomers and inexperienced players will need to step up right away due to graduation and injury.
Jessica Houts, the two-time All-MVC star, led the way last season for Creighton in almost every major statistical category: kills (331), kills per set (2.88), hitting percentage (.254), total blocks (166), block assists (154), and blocks per set (1.44). Between Houts and returnee Laurel Sanford, they led a Bluejays team that finished third in the NCAA in blocks per set. They were a great combination.
With Houts now gone, the program expected Lauren Bloemke to step in after recovering from a torn ACL to team up with Sanford to create another great duo. But just weeks ago, Bloemke tore the ACL in her other knee, ending her season before it started and effectively ending her career at Creighton.
Laurel Sanford, now a junior, must lead the position and bring along a couple of other younger players to create some chemistry. Sanford has quietly made a name for herself. While starting 26 of 30 games last season, she had 143 blocks last season, tying her for 4th place on Creighton’s all-time single season blocks list. She had a career-best 16 kills and 8 blocks against Evansville. The future elementary school teacher will be one to watch this fall, as she could make some strides and move up in the CU volleyball record book.
The first option to join Sanford will be sophomore Heather Thorson. Thorson was highly touted coming into last season and actually started the first six matches while Bloemke was trying to recover from her other ACL injury. She garnered most of her career highs against Kansas. She was used sparingly throughout the rest of the season, as Houts and Sanford proved a successful pair. Thorson is a local Nebraska product and will get the opportunity to show off her offseason training for the home state crowd.
The other middle blocker in the mix is incoming freshman Savannah Smith from Oakland, Iowa. Originally born in Omaha, Smith was a two sport athlete (volleyball and track) throughout high school. She earned her school’s first Division I scholarship. Coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth talked to WBR earlier this summer and compared Smith to former Creighton star Kelly Goc, so she brings expectations from the coaching staff to compete right away.
Although the middle blocker position looks thin and young, there is a lot of potential. Sanford will be a solid leader and will work to bring the others along. Look for Thorson and Smith to be interchanged early in the season to see who will settle into the other middle blocker position.
Check in tomorrow as we take a look at the setters.