Creighton’s volleyball program graduated from the moral victory phase a long time ago. That didn’t stop them from taking some positives out of last weekend’s loss to reigning national champion Penn State at the AVCA First Serve Showcase in Lincoln. The Bluejays got swept, but the first set was back and forth most of the way and the final two sets were tied a total of five times in the 20’s.
There wasn’t much of a prevailing glass half full sentiment in the underbelly of the Kohl Center late Friday night in Madison, Wisconsin. That’s where the 12th-ranked Bluejays fell to 0-2 on the young season with 25-21, 25-19, 26-24 loss to fifth-ranked Texas in their first of two matches at the Opening Spike Classic.
Between the untimely service errors, overly aggressive swings, and passing breakdowns that allowed the Longhorns to sustain scoring runs and cushion their leads, it left Creighton’s players and coaches frustrated by a lack of consistency.
“We do a lot of good, and obviously we’re playing some really good volleyball teams” head coach Brian Rosen said. “But right now we have these lulls in the middle of sets where we give up too many runs. We have to be a little bit cleaner and better in those moments.”
Midway through set one, Texas won eight points in a span of 11 rallies to open up a 15-9 lead. Then after Creighton cut that deficit in half, the Longhorns broke out a 5-0 scoring run to grab their largest lead of the opening set at 21-13. The Bluejays again roared back, fueled by a high-level stretch of blocking, to get within two at 21-19, but Texas took four of the last six rallies to hold them off and claim the set.
The second set followed a similar script. Creighton led 6-4 early on before the Longhorns went on a 13-3 run. Trailing 17-9 with no timeouts left, the Jays again punched back to get to 21-19 just like the first. And just like in the first set, they wouldn’t get any closer as they dropped the final four points to head into the break down two sets to none.
CU came out of the locker room with a lot of pop in hopes of extending the match where they weren’t able to a week ago. They were much cleaner offensively — highly terminal and less error-prone than they had been in the first two sets. Then came the passing breakdowns that resulted in a 16-11 lead turning into a third straight 21-19 deficit. Their blocking was able to get them back to even at 21-all this time around, but the untimely service errors followed one after another handing Texas two match points, the second of which they capitalized on to finish off the sweep.
“I think the team knows that we might have left one out there tonight,” Rosen said. “After the Penn State match, the mood was different because we did a lot of good things. They just played a little bit better than us. Tonight, I think we have some things that we can do better. Yes, Texas is a really good team, but a team that I think we could have challenged a little bit better tonight, especially in those first two sets and in trying to put them away in that third set.”
Texas was led offensively and defensively by Pittsburgh transfer Torrey Stafford. The AVCA First Team All-American from a year ago led everyone who saw the court in this match for either team in kills with 12 and digs with 15. Senior middle blocker Kiara Reinhardt led the Bluejays with nine kills on 17 swings. She hit .529 with no errors and finished with four blocks, as well as a nifty dig with her right thigh to help the Bluejays win a rally in the first set.
The positives offensively essentially begin and end with Reinhardt, though. Aside from setter Annalea Maeder, who had five kills of her own on nine attempts, the rest of Creighton’s hitters combined for 23 kills and 23 attack errors on 93 swings.
“We know Texas is a really good blocking team,” Rosen said. “I think that led to a little bit of our offensive errors. We were trying to challenge hands and just missing. I think we were maybe thinking they’re a little bit bigger than maybe they were. I thought we missed swings by an inch or two going too high, so that’s something that we can continue to work on our gym — just some vision work and seeing hands and making sure we’re getting those.”
Before Creighton can get back in the gym to clean those things up in training, they have one more Top 15 opponent to deal with on Sunday in Kansas.
The 14th-ranked Jayhawks fell in five sets to No. 8 Wisconsin in a match that took place prior to Creighton’s tussle with Texas. KU is off to a 1-2 start on the season under new head coach Matt Ulmer. All three of their matches have gone five sets so far. They beat Vanderbilt last weekend in Lincoln, then lost to No. 2 Penn State in Sioux Falls, South Dakota before dropping their most recent barnburner against the Badgers.
“They’re really good,” Rosen said. “Really good, really scrappy. They can kind of come at you from a lot of different places … they’re a good team. They’re in system a lot, too, so that’s going to test our servers to see how good we are as a serving team.”
It will mark the first of two regular season meetings between the two clubs. Creighton will host the rematch on September 21 in the final match of the Creighton Classic to close out the non-conference portion of the season. The matchup in Madison on Sunday will take place roughly 30 minutes after the conclusion of No. 5 Texas vs. No. 8 Wisconsin, which is scheduled to get underway at 1:00 p.m. CT.