Marquette went all out for its late-season rematch with Creighton. The Golden Eagles entered Sunday one game back of the Bluejays in the Big East standings with five matches to play, and tugged every available rope they could find. White out? Check. $2 dollar beer? Check. Free Qdoba burritos for students? Check.
The Dynamic Duo of Ava Martin and Norah Sis quieted the Milwaukee crowd on Sunday afternoon (Spomer / WBR)
The promotions attracted over 2,300 fans to the Al McGuire Center on a rainy afternoon in Milwaukee. For the first half hour or so, they were loud and rowdy and engaged. For the final 90 minutes, though, only about 150 of them were still enjoying the show. Those were, of course, the Creighton fans — comprised mostly of family and friends of Wisconsin natives Kiara Reinhardt, Elise Goetzinger, and Sophia Wendlick — who watched as the Jays dropped set one only to then dog walk Marquette over the last three to the tune of a 21-25, 25-12, 25-18, 25-13 four-set win to improve to a perfect 14-0 in Big East and 23-2 overall for the season.
“We kind of like it when the crowds are against us, to be honest,” senior outside hitter Norah Sis said. “We haven’t played in front of a crowd this big that’s against us since the non-con, so that was kind of fun. We kind of got out to a slow start, but we just reinforced playing our game and using that first set as a little chip on our shoulders to go out and be that much more aggressive.”
The All-American Papillion native had a match-high 23 kills on .429 hitting. Junior outside hitter Ava Martin hit .424 with 16 kills and 11 digs. And senior setter Kendra Wait finished with 44 assists, 13 digs, and five blocks to help CU outhit Marquette .423 to .087 over the second, third, and fourth sets to turn out another impressively dominant performance in a season full of them.
“After the first set, I told them, ‘This is so good for us, now how are we going to respond,” Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “A quick start was going to be important, and we did that in the second set. I thought we really came out and set a tone early. Sydney [Breissinger] started it with an ace, and I just think that early start was good to let Marquette know that we weren’t going to fold, and we were ready to battle.”
The Golden Eagles took control of first set about midway through after Creighton took a 12-10 lead. They won six of the following seven rallies, then used a 3-0 scoring run shortly after that to open up a 20-15 lead late. The Bluejays settled back in and rallied to within a point at 22-21, but a clutch kill and solo block by junior outside hitter Natalie Ring ended any hopes of a crowd-silencing comeback.
At least as far as the first set was concerned.
Creighton never gave them a chance to get loud in the second set as they went two-for-one over the first 11 rallies to storm out to an 8-3 lead, which force Marquette head coach Ryan Theis to burn a timeout early. Martin had four kills on her first four swings of the set to extend the lead to 11-4. She finished game two a perfect 6-for-6.
The Golden Eagles gained a glimmer of hope after a kill by star pin hitter Aubrey Hamilton, who burned the Bluejays with five kills in the first set, got another one to cut the deficit to 14-10. That ended when senior libero Maddy Bilinovic came through an improbable full extension dig that Sis turned into a point with an equally improbable one-handed joust against two Marquette blockers. Theis’ final timeout only delayed the oncoming surge as Bilinovic served up an ace out of the break to make it 18-10. CU won 11 of the last 13 rallies after Hamilton’s kill to go into the locker tied at one set apiece.
The third set was tighter than the second, but each time Marquette made a run, Sis and Martin had an answer that provided Creighton with a cushion. The superstar duo combined for 12 kills in the third after putting up 11 in the second.
“Both Ava and Norah were fantastic today,” Booth said. “I thought Norah passed a lot better today, too. Friday night was such an anomaly for Norah. That’s the thing that I think us coaches talk about is both of our outsides really consistently are good each night. Friday was not her best match, but that’s the great thing about Norah is she’s resilient enough to say, it’s done, let’s go on Sunday. And she did that.”
Marquette won three of the first four rallies in a gotta-have-it fourth set, but two more kills by Sis accompanied by another ace from Bilinovic fueled a 7-0 run that put the Bluejays back in control. They never let go of the rope.
Maddy Bilinovic’s defense was on display Sunday afternoon (Spomer / WBR)
Bilinovic finished with a match-high 15 digs to go along five assists and the timely aforementioned aces. With one match already under her belt against the Golden Eagles, Creighton’s coaching staff turned her loose a bit on Sunday, allowing the defensive anchor to play off instinct more often.
“It’s nice when you get to play a team twice because we were able to have a lot of conversations about the first time that we played them,” Bilinovic said. “Their outsides are very talented, so cross court it’s not so much of me standing here or running this defense. I had to tap into my reading abilities a little more in this game. And our block was able to turn it around in set two, and they carried that on through the third and fourth set, so I was able to play right off of them to make those reads and get the ball.”
Creighton finished the match with 12 ace blocks to Marquette’s three. They also finished with eight aces to just one for the Golden Eagles, who fell to 18-7 overall and 12-2 in Big East play — two full matches behind the Bluejays in the standings now with two weekends remaining.
Booth said it was really important that her team scored from behind the line on Sunday, but it also helped to make Marquette’s offense more predictable, which in turn made things easier on the blockers and passers defensively.
“After losing set one we didn’t think we served all that aggressive,” Booth said. “They were in system. They passed a 2.3 in the first set, and I have to guess it declined significantly after that, I haven’t gotten numbers. But one of the things we said after the first set is we have to stay aggressive with our serving, because they’re just too good in system, and I thought we did a good job of that.”
There is typically always something at stake when Creighton and Marquette are lined up across the net from one another, especially in November. But today may have had a little more weight than most. The Bluejays have won 10 consecutive Big East regular season crowns, but they have shared the previous three with the Golden Eagles. With just four matches left before postseason play, Sunday’s performance puts them squarely in the driver’s seat for the outright title. On top of that, Penn State also made a trip to the state of Wisconsin over the weekend and got swept in resounding fashion in Madison.
With the race for the final regional host seemingly coming down to the 23-2 Nittany Lions and 23-2 Bluejays, any setbacks and/or resume-boosting wins will likely be magnified in the eyes of the committee. While most coaches would normally consider that conversation to be a no-fly zone inside the walls of the locker room or practice facility, Booth and her staff take a different approach.
“We hit it straight on with them,” she said. “I want them to feel some pressure. I want them to know the ramifications. They’re going to feel pressure in the postseason, so I think telling them what these matches mean from a seeding standpoint and where we fall out — I think sometimes the more information the better. Maybe not in a timeout, or during a match (laughs), but maybe a couple days prior, so they understand the landscape. I’m not afraid to tell this team. I think they’re pretty mature.”
Sunday’s match was also televised nationally on Fox Sports 1 instead of hiding behind the FloSports paywall. It also took place right in the backyard of two selection committee members, including this year’s chair Danielle Josetti, who is also the Executive Associate Athletic Director at Marquette.
All of those variables make for fun debates and maybe a smidge more internal motivation, but it doesn’t seem to affect the day-to-day task for any of Creighton’s players.
“I think our mentality, honestly, is always we can only control what we can control,” Bilinovic said. “As cliche as it sounds, it’s right. We have no control over what the committee is going to decide. This team is losing, this team is winning, whatever. All we can do is just go out and win games.”