The Creighton volleyball team is really confident right now, and rightfully so. The Bluejays are 12-2, a record that’s good for their best start in program history. They are 3-0 in Missouri Valley Conference play, including two wins already against teams picked ahead of them in the preseason. Sophomore Kelli Browning, who at times struggled last season as a freshman, leads the nation in blocks. The pieces are fitting together for the Bluejays as they head into this weekend’s conference matchups with Southern Illinois and Evansville.
On Tuesday night, Creighton took on South Dakota and jumped out to a 2-0 lead before losing the third set and coming on strong at the end of the fourth to take the match. While the start to the season has been a success so far, fixing the little things will make them better as they get deeper into Valley play.
“I thought South Dakota really exploited some areas and did a nice job against us,” said head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. “I thought we started off incredible and then after that we were subpar the rest of the night. We were hit and miss in the second, third, and fourth game. We don’t feel like there are glaring issues, just little things like not taking a play off, setting up a block, and make sure you are covering something correctly, things like that.”
Getting off to a good start has been a key for this season’s success as we head into the halfway point of the season. The Bluejays have already swept opponents in five matches this season; last season they only swept opponents in eight matches total. Getting up 2-0 can be a real confidence booster, but can also lead to a letdown. Creighton is 170-8 all-time when leading a match 2-0. Bernthal Booth said it isn’t necessarily the 2-0 start that affects Jays, but how they get to that point that has made things a little exciting at times.
“I think the bigger thing I see is if an opponent comes out and isn’t ready and we roll them early like we did 18-6 against Missouri State,” said Booth. “Then you think that team will play like that the entire match and then they suddenly start to play well, I think sometimes it is hard to shift gears at that point when you think you are rolling a team. It is something you just can’t do and you have to stay focused and ready to go. We have struggled with that at times this year.”
In addition to their sweeps, there have been other matches where they went on to sweep teams like Wisconsin and Central Florida after losing the first set. They have even had the challenging games like the five set win over Missouri State and just coming up short in 3-2 loss to Kansas where they were down early 0-2. There are a lot of ups and downs during Volleyball season, but it seems like this team is different compared to teams in the past.
Creighton hits the road this weekend to conference foes Southern Illinois and Evansville. The Jays have had some great success against SIU and UE during Bernthal Booth’s tenure, going 36-1 against these two schools home and away. Things might be a little different when they get to Carbondale on Friday night.
The Salukis, under new head coach Justin Ingram, have been a great story so far this season. After losing their first match, they went on an 11-match winning streak to finish out their non-conference season and started 2-0 in the Valley. Since then the Salukis have hit a road block, losing to Missouri State and Wichita State last weekend.
“Southern Illinois in particular is a really good team this year. The fact that they play very well at home and are much improved, we will have to play very, very well if we want to get a victory on Friday,” Booth said.
Southern Illinois has a balanced attack similar to the Bluejays this season, so the 10th year head coach has a good idea on how to prepare for their attack.
“There are a lot of similarities,” Bernthal Booth said. “They have a very good middle, two solid outsides, a good libero, and a setter that is not as active as ours, but she dishes well. We will have to be ready to go.”
Evansville, on the other hand, is sitting at 5-11 on the season and lost to both the Shockers and Bears last weekend, getting swept in both matches. Despite the Bluejays winning 16 of the last 17 matches against the Purple Aces, again this team could be tough like any team can be when playing on their home court.
“Evansville historically is a much different team at home than on the road. They played Missouri State in particular really tight. They are always such a scrappy, feisty team and are playing a 6-2, so more offense is coming at us. They are well coached,” said Bernthal Booth.
Creighton has the opportunity to go 5-0 in conference play to potentially set up a showdown with the other unbeaten league foe, Northern Iowa. The Panthers have not lost a regular season MVC game in over three seasons. But they have to be careful this weekend to stay focused on the Salukis and the Aces despite the history and the team’s early success.
“We have already been on road trips, so I just don’t look at it as just a Valley road trip. These two teams are always really tough to play against.”
NOTES:
- Both matches will have live audio this weekend, but it will not be the Creighton crew. The Saluki broadcast on Friday is available while the Evansville campus feed is available on Saturday.
- You can also follow the live stats from the matches.
- With two wins this weekend, the Jays would tie a school-record for wins in a month with 10.
- Megan Bober was named as one of 30 finalists for the Senior CLASS award that focuses on the total student-athlete. Bober will make her program record 109th straight start.