Creighton got some extra help when Samantha Bohnet returned to the court earlier than expected for the Bluejays (Spomer / WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
She checked into the match to serve, then had to dig out three attacks from South Dakota hitters before her teammate, Jaali Winters, finally one the point with a kill. It was a perfect way for Samantha Bohnet to return to the Jays. Exactly one week ago to the day, nearly to the hour, the senior serving specialist and back row stalwart was on crutches and in tears, fearing that her volleyball career might have just come to a premature end while warming up at the Championship Center for Creighton’s Big East semifinal match against Villanova.
The night of Selection Sunday, Bohnet was optimistic that she would be able to return to practice in a week and possible play in a match should the team advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Fast forward five days later, and there she was toeing the line to serve and crouching in the back row to dig some balls.
“It’s a miracle, it’s a Christmas miracle,” the Council Bluffs, Iowa native joked when asked how it felt to be back so soon. “Honestly, I’m super blessed to have the trainer that we have. She works so hard on us and she committed so much time to me this week to do pool workouts and get me back in motion. I was just really focused on making sure that I wasn’t consumed with thinking about my knee, because I wanted to play to the best of my ability to get our team to win, and I wanted everyone around me to feel comfortable with me on the court. Super blessed that I’m back. I’m so glad that I’m not finishing my senior year on the bench. It was awesome being part of it with these gals and I’m not ready to be done yet.”
Shortly before the match against Villanova, Bohnet was attempting to hit a slide — something normally reserved for towering middle blockers, not 5-foot-8 serving specialists — when she landed on her knee, heard four pops, and assumed the worst. But the initial prognosis was optimistic, the official diagnosis was better, the recovery was quick, and the return was even faster. All of those moving parts combined with unwavering confidence from her teammates made it business as usual the moment she checked into the match.
“I knew that if I didn’t go into the game with my teammates confident with me on the court that it was going to get in my head a little bit,” Bohnet said. “They did an awesome job of pumping me up. They made me feel comfortable and I was ready to play.”
She looked more than just “ready to play.” Bohnet anchored the defense with a team-high 12 digs in the three-set win over the Coyotes to help her team advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year. It was the senior’s first match reaching double figures in digs since September 29 at Xavier.
Jays make sure hosting was a boost, not a burden
The Bluejays are having more fun hosting NCAA Tournament Games this season. (Spomer / WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
Hosting the opening two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever a season ago brought with it more pressure than Creighton’s players and coaches were anticipating when they spent year after year chasing down that milestone in their ascent to establishing themselves as one of the premier volleyball programs in the country.
From the moment their name popped up on the screen with a number in front of it on Sunday, to the practices throughout the week, to the match on Friday night, the energy was just different. Night and day. The nervous, pressure-packed energy in last year’s opening round match against Coastal Carolina was transformed into laser-focused, tone-setting energy against South Dakota. Undoubtedly a byproduct of both the experience and the expectation.
“This is kind of the standard for our program now — to host,” redshirt junior Megan Ballenger said. “We expect to be here, so it’s definitely a change from when we first got here and the first two years that we were here. We expect this and we are comfortable in [the environment].”
The Jays fell behind 1-0 on the very first point of the match against the Coyotes on Friday. They tied it up on the next point, took the lead one point later, and never trailed again the rest of the match. The players used every bit of energy from the home crowd to their advantage, even if it got the heart rate going a little too fast at times.
“Our fans are so loyal,” Bohnet said. “They treat us like family. They know us as real people, so it’s really easy to interact with them. They want to see us go as far as possible … it’s really exciting to have those people that just latch on to a team like this and give us all the confidence in the world. It’s super exciting to have all of that energy.
“[Junior libero Brittany Witt] and I were talking during the first ten or so points of the game that our hearts were beating out of our chests. It’s like when football players say they see their helmet shaking, it’s like that feeling — but we don’t have the helmet, obviously … breathing is key. It’s super cool to have fans like that who back you up.”
Zumach jump-starts Jays at the net
Kari Zumach (Right) got things going for the Jays (Spomer / WBR)
Creighton out-blocked South Dakota 10-1 on Friday, but it took a little bit for them to start asserting themselves at the net, defensively. After storming out to a 9-3 lead in set one, the Bluejays watched as USD rallied all the way back to within one at 10-9. Then wam, bam, two straight blocks by true freshman Kari Zumach — the first two stuffs of the night for the Jays — allowed the commanding lead to return and the blocking game to be unlocked.
She only recorded one more block the rest of the match, but the 6-foot-2 right side hitter had already set the tone for her team, with both her blocking and her endless enthusiasm on the court and off.
“I think you see her pump everyone up with her blocking and energy off the court, really anywhere she is,” Ballenger said of the Buffalo, Minnesota native. “It’s fun to block next to her. She dives a lot and takes risks, and you see her come up with big blocks. She’s only gotten better at it. We rely on her a lot to set the block out there and she’s done a great job.”
Zumach tied her season-high with six blocks in the Big East Tournament title match against 16th-ranked Marquette and is now averaging 1.20 blocks per set over her last three outings — all elimination matches.
‘Super Satur-Jay’ is all set up
Omaha has a case for being the epicenter of college athletics on Saturday. At 1:00 p.m. at CHI Health Center Omaha, the Creighton men’s basketball team hosts No. 1 Gonzaga, then at 7:00 p.m. the 9th-ranked Creighton volleyball team takes on No. 22 Washington with a trip to the Sweet Sixteen on the line at D.J. Sokol Arena.
“We’re so excited for tomorrow,” senior outside hitter Jaali Winters said. “When I realized that [the men’s basketball team] plays Gonzaga the same day we play I was like there is no way I can go, because I would just be too excited and way too riled up. But we are so excited for them tomorrow, and we’ll definitely be watching from our rooms and cheering them on. Hopefully everyone who goes to the men’s basketball game makes it over to our game later that night.”
D.J. Sokol Arena would have to undergo significant expansion for that wish to come true, but there is little doubt that the atmosphere at both events have potential be one that players, coaches, and fans alike will have a difficult time forgetting.