Creighton was a bit short-handed at the net this weekend with sophomore right side hitter Ann Marie Remmes out with a concussion, but the offense didn’t skip a beat thanks to grad transfer Ellie Bichelmeyer. The fifth-year right side hitter had her best match in a Bluejay uniform with season-highs in kills (11) and attack percentage (.500) to help CU sweep Villanova 25-21, 25-18, 25-14 on Sunday afternoon in front of a 2,092 fans at D.J. Sokol Arena.
The former Rice standout had five kills on eight swings in set one, two kills on three swings in set two, four kills on seven swings in the third-set clincher to round out her afternoon.
“She just got a cortisone shot in her shoulder,” Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “I think her shoulder has really been hurting and this past week she said it’s felt a lot better, and I think she’s hitting with more pop. The other thing is she likes a really specific ball and Kendra is starting to get that ball a little bit better. I thought she did a great job. And with her shoulder being out, she never serves, so she spends that whole time blocking and I think we saw some of that transfer because she was getting a lot of good block touches tonight, too.”
Kiana Schmitt and the other Bluejays stepped up once again on Sunday against Villanova (Juszyk / WBR)
With Remmes unavailable, Bichelmeyer was inserted into the rotation on Friday night and delivered four kills and a pair of digs in a lopsided sweep of Georgetown. For the weekend she racked up 2.50 kills per set to go along with four blocks and three digs while hitting .407 on 27 swings.
“We’ve been doing a great job working on connections,” Bichelmeyer said. “I’ve been waiting just to get out there and we had Ann Marie unable to play this week, so I wanted to step up for her and for our team.”
Villanova’s passing allowed them to open up an early 12-9 lead, forcing a timeout by Kirsten Bernthal Booth early in the first set on Sunday. The Bluejays were much more disruptive after the quick regroup as they finished the opening set with 15 block touches and held the Wildcats to four kills on .143 hitting over the final 21 rallies. Creighton, meanwhile, tallied 10 kills on .444 hitting over that same span down the stretch and used a 5-1 run to close out a 25-21 first-set victory. They outhit Villanova .308 to .163 for the entire set.
The Jays continued the clean play offensively with 12 kills and just one attack error on 25 swings in set two. After trailing 10-9 midway through the set, the Bluejays doubled up Villanova 16-8 the rest of the way to win it comfortably 25-18 and take a 2-0 match lead at intermission. True freshman outside hitter Destiny Ndam-Simpson, along with middle blockers Kiara Reinhardt and Kiana Schmitt each had three kills with only one attack error between them in game two to help CU outhit the Wildcats .440 to -.031.
Creighton raced out to a 5-0 lead in the third set behind kills by Bichelmeyer, Schmitt, and Ndam-Simpson. Villanova rallied out of a timeout to tie things up a couple times, but CU won 11 of the last 12 rallies and ended the match on an 8-0 run to seal the deal. The Wildcats hit .182 and led the Bluejays 13-12 through the first 25 rallies of the match. From that point on, Creighton was consistently more disruptive from the service line, holding the ‘Cats to an .048 attack percentage on the last 103 rallies. Creighton hit .378 and outscored Villanova 63-40 over that stretch.
“There wasn’t a big change [with our serving],” Booth said. “We talked about trying to get in the seams. Their Achilles’ heel a little bit has been passing, but their first five or six balls all looked like perfect passes. We knew if they were in system they were a very good team. You just try to beat teams down. You try to just keep it on them and see if you can wear them down a little bit. As soon as we could start disrupting them and neutralizing them it made a big difference.”
As was the case on Friday against Georgetown, the Bluejays were balanced and efficient offensively. Aside from Bichelmeyer’s breakout performance, Creighton also got a season-high nine kills on .571 hitting from Reinhardt, eight kills apiece out of Ndam-Simpson and sophomore outside hitter Ava Martin, and seven kills with only one attack error out of senior middle blocker Kiana Schmitt. The helped CU improve to 6-2 in the Big East, which now looks like a four-team race to the throne after St. John’s knocked off Marquette at Carnesecca Arena on Saturday evening. With five weeks left in the regular season, the Red Storm and Golden Eagles are tied for first place at 7-1 in conference play with Xavier and Creighton each one game back of the lead.
The Bluejays will be on the road for the rest of October with trips to UConn and Providence on the docket next weekend followed by rematches at Villanova and Georgetown.