For all that Creighton sports has accomplished, the final week of November in 2022 has to rank among the best. On Saturday night, the men’s soccer team continued their magical run with a win at Tulsa to advance to the Elite 8, and the volleyball team won their eighth Big East Tournament title in the last 10 years. Sunday, the volleyball team learned they’d be hosting a regional. On Monday, the women’s basketball team jumped to #13 in the AP Poll, their highest mark in program history, while the men’s basketball team moved up to #7 in the AP Poll to tie their highest mark.
These are unparalleled times to be a Bluejay fan, for sure.
In Tulsa, the Bluejay men’s soccer team trailed 1-0 for the third straight match in this NCAA Tournament, and for the third straight match they scored the winning goal in the final eight minutes. They trailed Missouri State 1-0 in the first round before goals from Jake Ashford and Alejandro Maillet in the last eight minutes secured a 2-1 win.
In the second round, they were tied 1-1 with #1 Washington. Then Duncan McGuire scored twice in the final seven minutes, and the Jays pulled off a monumental upset over their former coach Jamie Clark.
Then in the Sweet 16, the Jays’ Luke Mitchell kept the score tied late in the match with this unbelievable open field save.
And though the call that set it up was controversial — Tulsa’s goal keeper appeared to be playing the ball, and especially given the time/score a no call would have been understandable — Giorgio Probo made the resulting tie-breaking penalty kick in the 88th minute to knock off #15 Tulsa.
Probo is a transfer from Iowa Western who led the team in assists this season, and has done a great job all season of setting up his teammates to make big plays. In the season’s biggest moment to this point, he made one himself.
The win is impressive on its own merits, but even moreso when you consider that the team didn’t win more than two in a row all season long until the NCAA Tournament, when they’ve knocked off three ranked teams (so far). Combined with three straight in the Big East Tournament to earn a bid they otherwise might not have secured, the Jays have won six straight — and are suddenly just one win away from their first College Cup in a decade.
“The belief these guys have right now is special. They believe in each other and themselves,” Creighton coach Johnny Torres told the Omaha World-Herald after the match. “Until the final whistle blows, they’re going to continue to fight. It’s a great attribute to have.”
Getting that next win will be tough — an Elite Eight match at #4 Duke on Saturday awaits — but the first three were tough, too, and no one in college soccer is playing with more confidence or momentum than the Creighton Bluejays.
While the run Torres’ team is on surprised just about everyone, there’s nothing surprising about the accomplishments of Kirsten Bernthal Booth’s volleyball team. They’ve had the Big East’s best regular season record in nine straight seasons, and by virtue of a 3-2 win over Marquette in the conference tournament championship, they won their eighth tourney title in 10 seasons.
They boast a roster with four All-Big East players including senior Kiana Schmitt (2.30 kps., .323%, 1.00 bps.) and sophomore Kendra Wait (11.16 aps., 3.23 dps., .361%), and Big East Freshman of the Year Ava Martin (2.48 kps.). Oh, and Norah Sis (4.25 kps., 2.51 dps.) who was named both the Big East Player of the Year and Most Outstanding Player in the Big East Tournament.
They will host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at DJ Sokol Arena, facing off with Auburn (21-8) on Friday night. The Jays are the #4 seed in Stanford’s region and the #13 overall seed, and should they beat Auburn, would play the winner of South Dakota (29-3 and coming off a Summit League tourney title won against UNO at Baxter Arena) and Houston (28-3).
The Jays will enter the tourney having won 19 of their last 20 matches. On the latest edition of WBR’s Creighton Volleyball Wrap-Up podcast, Matt DeMarinis and Megan Ballenger look back at the Big East Tourney while previewing the match against Auburn.
Meanwhile on the hardwood, Jim Flanery and Greg McDermott’s teams have thrived under the spotlight of heightened preseason predictions. The women’s hoops team was picked second in the Big East poll behind UConn, and began the year ranked 21st in the AP Top 25. In their first six games they’ve won 78-69 at #23 South Dakota State and destroyed #22 Nebraska 77-51 — the latter being the only home game they’ve played to this point.
Their brutal schedule continues with a road game at #25 Villanova on Friday and another at St. John’s on Sunday before finally getting to play a pair of games in front of their home fans next week.
McDermott’s men’s hoops team was the preseason favorite in the Big East, and has done nothing to convince anyone otherwise through seven games. Last week in the Maui Invitational, they beat back-to-back ranked teams for the first time in program history — 76-65 over #21 Texas Tech and 90-87 over #9 Arkansas. And they came two points shy of making it three straight, falling 81-79 to #14 Arizona in the title game.
They’ve risen to #7 in the AP poll, tying their best mark ever — something they’ve achieved four times (Jan. 16, 2017, March 9, 2020, March 16, 2020 and Jan. 4, 2021). It’s the 21st time in program history that Creighton has been in the top 10 at any point, and all but one of those weeks has come under McDermott. They’ve been ranked 117 weeks in program history, with 89 of those under the direction of McDermott.
And now they get their biggest test yet — a true road game at #2 Texas. It’s the first time in program history they’ll have played four straight games against a ranked opponent (a streak that will end Sunday when they play the extremely unranked Nebraska Cornhuskers). If they have a perfect week, they’ll almost assuredly set a new high-water mark in next week’s poll.
McDermott is fond of writing on Twitter that “it’s a great day to be a Bluejay”, and while Jays fans would argue that’s true every day, some days are better than others.