Junior All-American outside hitter Norah Sis returned to action after a 11-match absence and immediately lit a fuse that Georgetown could not stamp out on Friday night. Creighton’s offense finished with a .488 attack percentage — the third most efficient mark in program history — and tore through the Hoyas 25-10, 25-13, 25-18 in front of 1,923 fans on “Pink Out” night at D.J. Sokol Arena.
The Jays had a lot to cheer about on Friday night.
Senior middle blocker Kiana Schmitt led all players with 10 kills, sophomore outside hitter Ava Martin added nine, while junior setter Kendra Wait and freshman outside hitter Destiny Ndam-Simpson each had eight. Wait finished with an .800 attack percentage — the highest of her career in a match with 10 or more swings — to go along with 29 assists, eight digs, two blocks, and an ace. Six different players finished with no fewer than four kills and no one took more than 20 swings on a balanced night for the Bluejay offense.
“We kind of finally just found our stride,” Wait said. “We’ve been putting in that effort consistently [in practice] and it was really cool to see that start to pay off. Our passers and defenders were giving us great balls so that we could run everybody. That was a huge part of it, and I’m just so confident in all of my hitters out there to go out and terminate every ball that I give them.”
While Creighton’s offense was often in system and in sync, Georgetown’s was the opposite. Entering the week, the Jays were concerned with the challenges the Hoyas’ tempo could present if they were able to keep their offense on schedule throughout the match. CU’s servers didn’t allow afford that luxury. Sis checked into the match on the second rally and served up back-to-back to set a tone for a performance from the service line that ended up tying a season-high in aces with nine and helping to limit Georgetown’s offense to a .167 attack percentage on 90 attempts.
“We knew they ran a super-fast tempo to the outside, so a point of emphasis was to try and get them out of system,” Sis said. “I thought we did a really good job of that.”
Creighton dominated from start to finish in the first set — winning the first four rallies and never looking back. Sis came in on the second rally after an over-the-shoulder dump by Wait, served up a pair of aces on her first two attempts, and the Jays were off and rolling. After missing the last 11 matches with an abdominal strain, the All-American out of Papillion, NE tied her career-best with three aces in the first set alone to help CU earn a 25-10 win.
“Honestly, when I went behind the line the first time I was just trying not to cry,” Sis of her first moment back on the court in five weeks. “I was just trying to get [the ball] in, and it just happened to die. It felt great [being back]. I had so much fun.”
The Bluejays outhit the Hoyas .667 to .208 and didn’t commit a single error on any of their 21 swings in game one. Rice grad transfer Ellie Bichelmeyer had three kills and a set-clinching block after earning the start on the right side in place of the injured Ann Marie Remmes.
The second set was more competitive than game one. At least for the first six or seven rallies. After that, Creighton put together three separate scoring runs of 3-0 or more to open up a 14-6 lead and cruise to a 25-13 victory at the break. Five different players had at least two kills in game two as the Bluejays outhit Georgetown .385 to .000. CU won nine of the last 12 rallies to grab the 2-0 match lead.
The Hoyas staked themselves to a 6-4 lead early out of the locker room in set three, but a kill and an ace to follow it up by junior middle blocker Kiara Reinhardt sparked a run that saw Creighton win 11 of the next 15 rallies to take a commanding 15-10 lead. After Georgetown pulled within at 18-16 in a late attempt to extend the match to a fourth set, Schmitt produced kills on two of the following three rallies to ignite a match-ending 7-2 run to help the Jays improve to a perfect 6-0 at home, 14-4 overall, and 5-2 in Big East play.
“I thought we played a really clean match against a solid Georgetown team,” Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “Some of the things we really worked on this week we saw some drill transfer from. I still think we need to get a little better defensively but overall, I was really pleased with the effort tonight.”
Bigger than the win on its own, getting their six-rotation superstar back in uniform is a big development for the Bluejays as they try to hit their stride in time for the stretch run. Sis was still limited from a hitting standpoint, but her serving, defense, and infectious energy was on display early and often in Friday night’s lopsided win. Along with matching her career-high in aces, the two-time All-American added six digs and two assists to her output for the evening.
“Norah is someone that people like having on the court,” Booth said. “Not only is she a great player, but she brings a calm to the court. If there is any stress — not that we hit any tonight — she is going to be someone you can look to say, ‘we got this, I got this.’ Those are good things for our team. The way that our team, and fans, but in particular our team reacted when Norah got on the court tells you how great of a teammate that she has been through this [injury] … I think that’s a testament of how much Norah is loved by her teammates, what a great teammate she has been, and the other young women on the team that are wanting the best for the whole group.”
Before hitting the road for the next two weekends of conference play, Sis and the Bluejays will be back at D.J. Sokol Arena on Sunday afternoon for a 1:00 p.m. (CT) match against Villanova.