The hits kept coming on Friday night. They came from the side by Melanie Jereb. They came from the rafters by Leah McNary. They were slammed from the other side by Jess Bird. Every way you looked there was a Bluejay with another kill. When the dust settled, the Bluejays walked away victors in a quick sweep over Northern Colorado in Bluejay Invitational, in straight sets: 25-12, 25-18, and 25-16.
The Bluejays were clicking on all cylinders for the most part in their 2013 home opener and jumped all over the Bears early with a 5-1 lead in the first set. Creighton had McNary, Bird and Jereb clicking on all cylinders in the first set combining for eight of the team’s ten kills in the set.
The second set was all Bluejays as well, but this time it was Kelli Browning contributing to the mix with four kills of her own to add to the trio’s eight. Northern Colorado was off balance all evening and didn’t have an answer. Before you knew it, the Bluejays were up 2-0.
By the time the third set was over, the Bluejays finished up the 1 hour and 15 minute match in time to send all the fans over to Morrison Stadium to watch the Creighton men’s soccer game that was just starting and allowing others to partake in Socctoberfest.
“Air” McNary finished the evening leading the Bluejays with 11 kills. The multipronged attack was something that she thought contributed to their success
“I think we have three great hitters and the other team will have to look at all three of us and not just one person, so we just kept swinging,” said McNary. “I think our block setup is really good. I think our blocking this year is really strong. I think once we blocked them a couple of times it affects other teams.”
For Jess Bird, this was her first regular season match in front of a home crowd. The local product from Bennington, watched the Bluejays many times from the sidelines, so of course there were some first match jitters with a couple of early attack errors and a serving error, but then calmed down to have a great match.
“It is definitely a rush. But then your teammates just pull you back and you just start playing well,” said Bird. “My teammates are really behind me and help me through. They give me confidence in the match.”
Bird had her assessment of how the team did on Friday night.
“We passed really well towards the end. We blocked really well and had good setups. What we need to work on…serving definitely. But it could be because it was our first game and we were on a rush.”
For the team in general, head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth thought they were all a little nervous initially.
“Absolutely. I’m thrilled we got through the victory with a 3-0 win over a very good team. I do think our first home match is almost your first match of the season where you have a lot of anxiety with playing in front of friends and family. I was really pleased with how we came out in the first game because I thought we would see a lot of nerves.”
After the match, Bernthal Booth mentioned several things they did well and things they will continue to work on.
“I thought we did a lot of good things. I thought we blocked well. Our defensive effort was outstanding. We didn’t pass well in the first game, but we did in game two and three. I did not think we served too well,” said Bernthal Booth. “I don’t think we make a lot of unforced errors, but if you want to be a top level team you can give away two or three points a game on a boneheaded mistake and I think we did that a little bit.”
With the distribution of the attack in Friday’s win, it is a luxury that the Bluejays can use to their advantage.
“I think one of our strengths is that we have good offensive parity. The luxury for Michelle (Sicner) is finding who is not. If someone is not, she has other options she can go to. Having so many weapons is tough to defend and what we are trying to do.”
Heading into Saturday, the Bluejays take on South Florida at noon and the will close out the Bluejay Invitational against California at 7:30 p.m. Both matches will be tough and both teams will be hungry to get a shot at the ranked Bluejays.
“They are both really good. South Florida has a stud outside that is a big time player. If she gets going she could singlehandedly defeat us. South Florida runs a lot of different patterns out of serve/receive. We have to take them out of system,” said Bernthal Booth.
“Cal is very physical. They have a couple of studs and they have a local kid (Lillian Shonewise). I always think with someone like that who has a lot of fans coming tomorrow night, so that always gives a team an extra boost. Cal can jump into the top 25 if they beat us so they have the incentive there.
We have two tough matches, but our whole non-conference is tough matches and we knew we were taking on that challenge. It should be fun.”
NOTES:
- In only her third career match, Jess Bird is second on the team in kills with 32 just behind Leah McNary who has 34. Watching Bird on the court, you wouldn’t realize she was just a freshman. She looked like a veteran.
- Michelle Sicner continued her great play since moving back to setter handling 27 assists and getting 15 digs in the victory.
- The videoboard had some new, nice looking graphics and videos for the player introductions. One of note was for McNary, who is known for her jumping ability, had a shot of her jumping in the air with video pausing in mid-flight. The videos overall looked like an upgrade from prevous seasons.
- At the intermission, there was a game where one contested served the ball and the partner was on the other side of the net and had to catch the balls in a trash can strapped to their back. That was something different I had not seen before.