The Creighton volleyball team can mark another think off the list of goals this season–Win the Bluejay Invitational. They did so against their former Valley foe, Wichita State, on Saturday night in four sets, 25-15, 16-25, 27-25, 25-19.
Visit Mike Spomer’s gallery at photos.whiteandbluereview.com to browse and buy pictures from Creighton’s win.
At fall media day, several players mentioned on their goal board was winning their hosted invitational, now in its tenth year. After sweeping Bowling Green earlier in the day, the Bluejays were setup for a showdown against the Shockers for the title. While it wasn’t necessarily a concern to head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth that the Bluejays win this, the goal was to see her team improve this weekend, which they did.
“I think we got better this weekend,” said Booth. “We talked about process. We were better last weekend than we were the first weekend and we were better this weekend than we were last weekend. I was really pleased today that with the things we struggle with last night we improved on–out of system, unforced errors, serving this afternoon was really good, but nothing like last night. We struggled at end game for us. Game three could have been the match. We felt like Wichita had the momentum in that game, so for us to win that was huge for us.”
The first set saw the Bluejays completely dominate the Shockers and it looked like Creighton would be on their way to an easy victory. Everyone appeared to be on their game from a hitting perspective where they hit for a combined .469 in the first set. Seniors Kelli Browning and Leah McNary along with freshman Marysa Wilkinson combined for 14 kills on 19 swings and three blocks to pace the way to a 25-15 first set.
However, the second set appeared to be the opposite of the first set where Creighton struggled to get things going. While Wilkinson and Browning still did their best, it was the receiving game and passing that hurt the Bluejays. Wichita State targeted things towards Melanie Jereb who struggled with 5 receive errors and as a team only seven digs in that set before falling 25-16 heading into the break.
Kelli Browning and Marysa Wilkinson filled the stat sheet in the Bluejay Invitational championship game (Spomer/WBR)
Coming out of the break, the Bluejays made adjustments by putting in Katie Neisler in for Jereb and directing their attacks to Neisler and Browning. The third set was back and forth throughout and could have gone either way. But the results turned into a momentum changer. Creighton held off three set points by Wichita State with three straight kills from McNary and a kill by Wilkinson and a block by McNary and Lauren Smith in dramatic fashion to take the third set 27-25.
“We want them to swing away at end game and to be aggressive. I thought we had some good serves at that point and in system at that point. We want to build an arsenal so we are comfortable when we are in that situation again–that can be next Wednesday, or next weekend so that they can be confident.”
The fourth set started out pretty tight, but between Browning, Wilkinson, and Maggie Baumert they pulled away. Tied at 14, Baumert started a 9-0 stretch from the serve line where Wilkinson stepped up with three kills in that stretch along with a block. After the Shockers held off three game points, Wilkinson then closed out game with a kill and the Bluejays took the game and the invite championship.
Browning finished the evening with a career high 18 kills, while the young Wilkinson and McNary both had 14 kills of their own. For Wilkinson it was a career high as well and a night she won’t soon forget.
“It was awesome,” said Wilkinson. “The team is so fun to play with and the fans were awesome too. We were just having fun on the court so it is easy to play when you are having fun. My teammates had faith in me so it made that much easier.”
The Bluejays hit .319 for the match, compared to Wichita State’s .186. With everyone hitting at such a high clip, there were other factors that led to victory.
“Statistically we kept wondering why it was so close because we were hitting at such a high clip,” said Booth. “I think it went to serving and passing. Wichita had 8 aces and 4 errors. We had more errors than aces, so that neutralizes things quite a bit, so that is an area we still need to get better in. But a big priority for us this year was our hitting efficiency. We had to be a better hitting team. I have seen a lot of progress in that and I hope to see it continue.”
At the end of the day, coach Booth’s idea is to create a team with a lot of weapons and it was on display on Saturday night.
“Kelli is a monster right now and Marysa is not playing like a freshman. Lauren is hitting at a high clip, Leah hit great this game, Katie and Mel have done a nice job. So I feel like we have options all over the place. We have to continue be in system. That allows us to distribute where we want to go. We have some great parity and Maggie can pick and choose where she goes with the ball.”
Next up is a midweek showdown with in-state rival Nebraska on Wednesday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. While the Bluejays will enjoy Saturday night’s victory, it is back to work for coach Booth and her team.
“I need to go watch some film. I haven’t been to Devaney yet, so it will be fun to see that atmosphere and Nebraska will have a great crowd. Just think how many Nebraska kids are going to be on that court on Wednesdsay night and that is pretty cool for both teams. What a celebration for volleyball that we have in this state.”