Kirsten Bernthal Booth didn’t want her team to come out of the opening weekend with two losses, but she also didn’t expect her 2015 squad to be ready for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament on the first day of the season either.
The Bluejays (1-2) won their regular season opener in five sets against Miami of Ohio on Friday. On Saturday, they dropped a five-set result to Louisville, then were swept by No. 8 Illinois to come home from Champaign with a 1-2 record. There were some good things to build on, and some others that need to tightened up.
“I don’t know if you ever know what you want to have exploited, but we played some great teams and we got better in every match,” Booth said. “But yeah, we obviously saw things that we needed to get better at and we’ve been spending time on that this week.”
One of the areas the Bluejays focused on this week was blocking, specifically their block set up. They had 22 blocks in 13 sets over the weekend, but Louisville hit .286 as a team in five sets while Illinois hit .330. Last year, only Southern California and Seton Hall hit higher than .285 against Creighton, and those two matches were separated by two and half months. For the entire season, Creighton held the opposition to a .161 clip while averaging 2.66 blocks per set.
“It’s a team concept issue that we’ve got to get better at,” Booth said. “Our setups weren’t great. It obviously helps to be big, but really I thought Katie Neisler last year was one of our best blockers, because she set up consistently in the right place, so this week we’ve really worked on block set up so that hopefully we’re getting in front of the hitter and taking away high percentage shots, and protecting areas of the court that we want to protect. Among other things that has been an area of emphasis this week.”
Booth was pleased with how the young team responded to their first test of the season. Not only how they played throughout the weekend, but also how they prepared and worked during the week to keep improving.
“The work ethic of this group is never in question,” she said. “We’ve watched some film of things we think we can get better at, and they’ve done a great job all week of working on those things. And I think we’ll see some strides in those areas. I still think we have a ways to go, but that’s why we’re in week two.”
Week two might offer a bigger challenge than the first weekend. After a few two-hour-plus practices centered on shoring up those areas that needed improvement mixed with some film study and a little bit of scouting, the Creighton volleyball team is ready to go on the road again to see how they measure up against some of the nation’s best. This Friday and Saturday, the Bluejays (1-2) will take part in the UNI Tournament at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa. There they will face No. 8 Southern California (3-0), Northern Iowa (1-2), and No. 10 Kentucky (3-1).
“They’re all really good teams,” sophomore setter Kenzie Crawford said. “UNI is more like the scrappy team, and then obviously Kentucky and USC are more like the big players. We’re just expecting to go out there and play like we can, and not play the name on the jersey. Just play our game, play our side, focus on us, and the things will come.”
USC will be first up for the Bluejays on Friday at 4:30 p.m. The Trojans beat Creighton in four sets last season and they have looked even stronger this year after taking down No. 7 North Carolina, No. 11 BYU, and Chicago State in the Women of Troy Baden Invitational last weekend.
“USC is playing very good. I think they’re at a faster tempo. I think they had chemistry issues last year from what I’ve picked up, and I think that looks like it’s kind of cleaned up,” Booth said. “They have lots of firepower, they’re a big team, good blocking team, good defensively. They’re a great team.”
On Saturday, Creighton will face Northern Iowa at 12:30 p.m. and No. Kentucky at 5:30 p.m. The Bluejays beat the Panthers in five sets last year after falling behind 0-2. The Wildcats swept Creighton in the final match of the tournament.
“Northern Iowa is playing well. They’re a tough team to play,” the Creighton head coach said. “We beat them in five last year, and they are better on their home court, so we’ll have our hands full. Kentucky is another great team, another top ten team, who has some big time firepower and does a lot of great things.”
Booth wants to see her team get excited for another challenging weekend against some of the top teams in the country, particularly at the end of games when they have a chance to finish off some of these perennial powers.
“Let’s go. It’s more fun to play great teams, and hopefully we play great right back at them and it will be a battle,” she said. “I think one thing we want to get better at is end game. I didn’t think we performed as well as we have at different times at end game, and that’s been a big discussion point this week. It’s more of the idea of let’s go for it. Swing for the fences and good things will generally happen if you play to win.”
Crawford Uses Small Stature To Make Big Plays
Sophomore setter Kenzie Crawford made the first starts of her career this past weekend leading the Creighton offense. She had to shake off some nerves in the beginning, but averaged 6.7 kills, 43.3 assists, 10 digs, 2.3 blocks per match against Miami (OH), Louisville, and Illinois during the opening weekend.
“I was like everyone probably when they first play,” Crawford said. “It was our first tournament, but it was nice to have a team that had your back and was confident in me. That kind of built the confidence up in myself and I was able to play through the jitters.”
In the five-set loss to Louisville, she recorded the fastest triple-double in school history, posting 10 kills, 51 assists, 11 digs in just her second career start. Crawford said she didn’t even know what she had done until she started to received an unusual amount of attention after the match.
“I’m not really used to a lot of media and stuff, so everyone was texting me and congratulating me, and I really had no idea,” the redshirt sophomore from Grand Rapids, Michigan said. “I didn’t know I had a triple-double, I just go out there and play. When the stats come at the end the stats come.”
Almost as impressive as the triple-double was the fact that she also added five blocks in the match. She had seven total blocks for the weekend and also recorded 20 kills while only committing two attack errors to finish with a .545 attack percentage. The numbers jump out more when you realize that at 5-feet, 9-inches, Crawford is one of the shortest players on a Creighton team that features nine players who stand six feet or taller.
Crawford used that unassuming physical presence to her advantage during the opening weekend and plans to do so in the future as well.
“I definitely think that my height is an advantage and it’s a disadvantage,” she said. “People don’t know how I play yet, because it was my first day, so I kind of just went out there and played the style that I play. I think that I was able to fool with people, because of my height. For one, they didn’t think I could jump, so I was able to attack a lot. Then two, once I established myself I was able to get my other hitters in it, which helped a lot.”
Head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth expects opponents to be more prepared for her new setter as the season moves along, but says Crawford’s athleticism will still allow her to find ways to be an effective, active quarterback for the Bluejays.
“The teams this weekend will be prepared for an active setter,” Booth said. “Last weekend they didn’t know if she dumped or if she didn’t dump. Some of those sort of things people will see in a scout. The good thing with Kenzie is I think she’s relatively versatile with what she can do with the ball.”
After the opening weekend, Crawford’s teammates already have confidence in her abilities and the chemistry she has developed with her hitters.
“She definitely asserted herself as an active setter, and as a threat on offense,” freshman outside hitter Jaali Winter said. “She makes great decisions with the ball and definitely spreads out our kills, which makes our offense a huge threat to any team.”
Winters Impresses In Debut
A lot of excitement surrounded Creighton’s 11th-ranked 2015 recruiting class. Injuries have held out top recruit Taryn Kloth and Megan Ballenger, but freshman outside hitter Jaali Winters started and played in every set at the Illini Classic. If her performance is indication of what is to come, then Winters is set up to have a great career as a Bluejay. In her debut, she had 17 kills, 14 digs, and four blocks in a win over Miami (OH). In the five-set match against Louisville she had 11 kills, then followed it up with 13 kills and 12 digs against Illinois.
“I thought Jaali was a stud all weekend,” Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “She really played with great poise. She doesn’t play like a freshman. She’s just a kid that has confidence. If she makes an error she wants the next ball, and that’s what you want from a great volleyball player, to see that they can bounce back. I thought it wasn’t just her front row play, her back row play was great, too.”
Winters credited her approach for how she was able to perform under the lights and against some tough competition. To her it was just another day of volleyball.
“I honestly take every practice like it’s a championship match,” the freshman from Ankeny, Iowa said. “I prepare the same way for games and for practices every single day, so my nerves really weren’t much of a factor during the day. I didn’t have any more nerves than I had at any other practice.”
Opposing teams certainly targeted her on serves and in attacks, but that didn’t bother the first-year outside hitter. She embraces the challenge of proving herself on the court at the collegiate level.
“It was exciting knowing that they were going to go after me,” Winters said. “To get the chance to be able to prove to people that just because the word freshman is in front of my name doesn’t mean that they can break me.”
“I definitely felt really comfortable this weekend. Positive self talk is a really big thing here on our team, so even after I would shank a pass I just said to myself, ‘I got the next one. I can do this.’ I just continued to lift myself up just like I would lift up any of my teammates. That was what really got me through it.”