It is that time of year — the time where it gets a little warmer outside, the birds are chirping and many have spring fever. But, there are those still inside working on their skills that will be used in less than six months from now kicking off the fall sports season. The Creighton Volleyball team is one of those groups.
Creighton Volleyball is quietly preparing for the start the Creighton 2012-13 sports season. “I just love this time of year,” said head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. “It creates some extra time to develop the team.”
The Bluejays have to replace two starters from last year’s squad. Four year star Laurel Sanford is graduating while All-Conference libero Julianne Mandolfo opted to transfer to another school. In addition, emotional leader and spark of the bench Karisa Almgren is graduating. Although Creighton has some great players returning, including Megan Bober, Brooke Boggs, Natalie Hackbarth, Michelle Sicner and Leah McNary, they will also have some holes to fill.
We sat down with Bernthal Booth, who is heading into her 10th season as the head coach, to get some insight during the offseason and what to look forward to over the next few weeks.
Spring Season
The volleyball team has time in the offseason to conduct individual training. The players participate in conditioning four days a week and get to complete some on-court training in small groups two hours a week. “I love January through March because we do small groups,” said Booth. “During that time we are breaking down skills, our ratio is one-to-one or one-to-two, and we can also really connect with the players as people, because it is such a great setting with them to do that.”
Since the students have returned from Spring Break, the players have been on the court allowed now to practice every day and each weekend they have the opportunity to do some drills with other teams as well as some scrimmaging. “Practice has been going really good overall and we are seeing progress,” said Booth. Last weekend they took part in a scrimmage at UNO while also getting to play against South Dakota. This weekend the Jays will host their own set of scrimmages that is open to the public. “Obviously we want to teach winning, but winning is not what we are focused on. We are focusing on getting better and playing everybody, giving them opportunities to see what they can do.”
The hardest part about the spring season is the limited number of players available. The seniors are not on the team anymore and the incoming players are not able to be a part of the team yet, so it makes it tough to do 6-0n-6 types of drills which makes the scrimmages even more useful.
“We have a couple of injuries, so there are only eight current players on the court,” said Booth. “But between Tom [Mendoza], Amanda [Sjuts], Angie [Oxley Behrens], Laurel Sanford, and others we can make due.”
Working Through Injuries
The Bluejays haven’t had luck with injuries over the past couple of seasons. Two seasons ago, Lauren Bloemke went down with her second knee injury that sidelined her for her senior season. Losing her forced freshman Savannah Smith into action, who was also recovering from offseason shoulder surgery out of high school. At the end of the season Smith was forced to have surgery again which eventually forced her to redshirt this past season. But right now Smith appears to be coming along great for the 2012 season.
The injury bug has hit Creighton once again heading into 2012. With Mandolfo gone, there is a void to fill on the defensive side of things. It becomes a little tougher as senior-to-be Brittany Moon will be out for the season after having surgery on a torn ACL which she actually suffered last fall, but played on it all season long. “After we found out what was wrong, the doctors said she was probably one of the toughest kids they have ever seen,” said Booth. This is her second ACL injury to the same knee she tore the first time while in high school. While Moon did not play in a lot of sets last season, this year could have been an opportunity for her to be a bigger contributor on the court as a veteran. She will still be on the team this fall as a student coach.
There are a couple of other players to make note of this offseason. Heather Thorson is recovering from having her knee scoped. “Hopefully we will have her back before the end of the spring season,” said Booth. “She is rehabbing right now, but is doing well.” Brooke Boggs came down badly on her ankle last weekend in the UNO scrimmage which may take three to four weeks to heal, likely keeping her out of the rest of the spring season. Both should be back for the fall.
Transfers
Most sports suffer some transfers each season. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the volleyball team experienced its own set of transfers. However, it is rare for an All-Conference player and one of the best liberos in the nation to transfer. Julianne Mandolfo decided to leave Creighton and will resurface in the fall at Ohio State. Mandolfo led the MVC in digs last season and set a Creighton single season record for digs. “I’m excited for Julianne and we think it is the best for both parties. She said she’d like a bigger school. We wish her only the best,” said Booth.
Lexi Malm also left the team and transferred to Wayne State. The sophomore suffered from back injuries as a freshman and had trouble breaking into the rotation this past season.
Will Boggs fill the role of libero? (Spomer/WBR)
Defense
With Mandolfo now out, there is a big hole to fill at the libero position. To-be-senior Boggs could be the one to fill that role. She has been a big contributor over the last three seasons as a defensive specialist and has the most experience of those battling for the roll. However, at this point it is a wide open competition. Booth sees a solid set of players that will help on the defensive side with Katie Neisler and Lizzy Stivers having success in the back row. But there may be more help on the way.
Through our own research, it appears a couple players from Marian are coming to Creighton this fall. According to the Omaha Marion high school website, All-State Libero Kate Elman has signed to play at Creighton next season. She was a four year letter winner at Marian and holds the state record for digs in a season and digs per game at Marian.
The same website also mentions that Elman’s teammate Ashley Jansen will also be arriving at Creighton in the fall as a walk-on. Though known as a setter in the Marian two setter offense, Jansen could be a contributor on the defensive side of things once she arrives in the fall.
Upcoming Matches
This weekend, Creighton hosts their own set of scrimmages welcoming to town North Dakota State and Iowa State. Creighton defeated Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament two seasons ago in their first NCAA appearance and first NCAA Tournament win. Initially it was just going to be a “play date” scrimmage with North Dakota State, but the opportunity to add the Cyclones to the mix was a great opportunity. “Iowa State was looking for date,” said Booth. “Obviously they are a great team and we thought it would be great to have them here.”
The morning will consist of drills and intermixing between teams to help them get to know each other while the afternoon will consist of best two-out-of three scrimmages against each squad. Here is the schedule of events for this Saturday:
- 9:30 a.m. –Intermixed warm-up drills with Iowa State and North Dakota State.
- 10:00 a.m. — All of the schools will be playing each other in a Creighton practice drill (called 3-2-1) for 15 minutes each.
- 10:45 a.m. — All of the schools will participate in one of Iowa State’s practice drills (called Serve +1)
- 12:30 p.m.– The Bluejays will take on North Dakota State in a best 2-of-3 scrimmage.
- 1:30 p.m. — Iowa State plays North Dakota State in a best 2-of-3 scrimmage
- 2:30 — Creighton takes on Iowa State in a best 2-of-3 scrimmage.
The entire schedule is open to the public for free if you want to come cheer the teams on.
Over the next month, the Bluejays will be on the road taking part in some similar get togethers:
- March 31 @ Kansas City (Blue Valley West HS)–with St. Louis, Missouri State, Kansas, Kansas St. & Arkansas State.
- April 17th @ University of Nebraska-Kearney (Big Guns Invite)–with Kansas, Wyoming, Northern Colorado, Kansas State, and UNK
Fall Schedule
Although the fall schedule is still being solidified with dates and times, but Coach Bernthal Booth revealed that they mostly have the schedule completed. The Bluejays will be going to Tampa to play South Florida, taking a trip to Greeley, Colorado to take on Northern Colorado and will also partake in a road match at Kansas. They will also be hosting South Dakota in the non-conference schedule.
As mentioned last year, the series with Nebraska is on hold at this time due to scheduling conflicts between the two teams. There is hope that this series can be resumed in the future.