Ellie Bolton is fiercely competitive. That was evident on Sunday when her parents, Brady and Cristy, showered her with congratulatory praise after she took home MVP honors at the Reamer Club Xtra Special Premier in West Lafayette, Indiana over the weekend. She wasn’t having any of it, however, because all she had on her mind was a five-set loss to Duke on the final day after sweeping Loyola Chicago and a Top 20 team in tournament host Purdue on Friday and Saturday.
Ellie Bolton is making her mark on Creighton (Juszyk / WBR)
Bolton suppresses frustration with a smile because she knows that positive energy permeates through the team and a next point mentality is the only way to thrive in her sport. But the eyes never lie. No matter if it’s in practice or a live match, any time she shanks a pass or fails to get a ball up on defense you can see her wondering how she let that happen. The perfectionist’s mindset manifested itself in her desire as a senior to win back the libero position that she held as a freshman in the spring of 2021 before losing out to grad transfers Abby Bottomley and Allison Whitten the past two seasons.
“She’s one of the most competitive people that I’ve ever played with,” junior All-American outside hitter Norah Sis said. “Everyone on our team knows that — she’s pretty feisty, especially in competitive drills. She just wants to win. She’s the same person, teammate, and player whether she’s in the libero jersey or not. That’s something that has stood out to me the past three years. It’s been really cool to see every year as her role has changed she’s always working hard and she’s always encouraging all of her other teammates, especially the past two years with the people who she wanted to be in the same position as.”
But Bolton will tell you that being hyper-competitive and a good teammate will clash. It’s a difficult internal battle to survive when you fight for a spot, fall short, then have to dust quickly yourself off and adjust to a role you wouldn’t allow yourself to accept if given the choice.
“My coaches know that it was a really hard time for me,” Bolton said. “I took it personally. If you’re bringing in fifth-years it means you want someone else. But both years I got an equal chance to earn that spot. They came out on top, and you have to give them credit because they were both phenomenal players and their experience carried them way more than mine did. But I’m still a really big competitor. I was upset, I was pissed, I didn’t like the role that I was in. So many different things were going through my head. But you realize that the team is more important. Those girls earned that spot and it’s not changing so I’m going to support them and do what I can to help the team.”
Bolton has made her mark serving, but now playing a larger role as the featured defensive specialist (Spomer / WBR)
Maybe that level of role acceptance is easier to manage for one season, but two? Consecutively? After starting as a freshman? A third year in a row of open competition then staring her in the face as a senior? She could have quit. No shame in that. All athletes have to embrace that reality at some point in their lives. She also could have transferred and played right away at a school that would guarantee her the starting libero job. She had that option, too. She checked the “no” column on both lines. In the end, she wanted to finish what she started — at Creighton.
“That was something I really struggled with because I love everything about Creighton inside and outside the [volleyball] program,” Bolton said. “When you don’t get the role that you want you have family and friends that are so supportive of you telling you to go somewhere else and get the spot that you deserve. Maybe I could have left and played somewhere else, but I knew that just as much as I trusted my coaches, they trusted me. I didn’t give up on them and they didn’t give up on me. It would have been easy from their perspective to say, ‘well, she hasn’t played the last two years, maybe she’s just never going to get it.’
“But I knew this was where I wanted to be and that was the spot that I deserved regardless of what happened the last [two] years. There was a lot of up and down. It wasn’t smooth sailing at all the last two years, but that’s what makes moments like this and having success with our team so much more rewarding. I think the coaches feel that, too. I appreciate them not giving up on me and in return they appreciate me for not giving up on them … I’m surrounded by the best day in and day out, so regardless of if it wasn’t the role I wanted, I’m with the people that I love. That made it an easy decision to stay.”
She also had to alter her pursuit of perfection. In focusing so intensely on trying to get everything right, messing up can inadvertently bleed into other areas. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies without even realizing it. In order to unlock her true potential, she had to become more accepting of failure.
“Ellie is one of the hardest-working kids that we’ve ever had in the gym,” longtime assistant coach Angie Oxley Behrens said. “She’s very much of a people pleaser and very results-based … she was always worried about getting perfect passes every time and kind of forgetting about what her body is doing. She had a mind shift at the beginning of her junior year where she forgot about the result and focused on what she needed to do with her body to create good passes. Having that shift has helped her become a better passer.
Bolton has high expectations for herself on defense (Juszyk / WBR)
Behrens continued, “Defensively, Ellie is amazing. Amazing. She’s one of the best defenders we’ve ever had [at Creighton]. At that libero position, when it comes to passing, we look to see can you maintain those 2.2 to 2.3 passing numbers as a libero? A 2.3 means you’re a really good passer and above that means you’re exceptional. Ellie has definitely made that shift of knowing what she’s doing with her body now to make herself a really good passer.”
That was on display this weekend in West Lafayette when the 5-foot-7 senior out of Shawnee, Kansas set the tone for the Bluejays with her serve receive and defense against a star-studded lineup of hitters on the other side of the net. She averaged 4.82 digs per set over the weekend and her first contacts helped Creighton outhit their opponents .265 to .204 while averaging 15.36 kills per set — good for 8th-best in the country. That along with a match-high 22 digs in a sweep of then 16th-ranked Purdue, and 23 more the next day against Duke, earned her an ultra-rare Most Valuable Player award as a libero.
“Ellie made some really impressive digs,” Behrens said. “What makes her great as a defender is she’s always in the right place at the right time. She does a really good job of reading what the hitters are attacking, and she puts herself in the right spot. She made some really impressive digs against some tough attackers this weekend.”
“Usually you see outside hitters, middle blockers, or even setters [winning MVP]. But Ellie, if you looked at her dig numbers, they were crazy good, and while the stats don’t tell you what the libero passed, we track that, and she passed the best she’s ever passed in her entire career. That was the whole weekend, too, not just one match. She was very consistent of passing well above a 2.3. She hit that exceptional range this weekend.”
Ultimately, Mom and Dad probably picked a bad time to butter up their eldest child on Sunday afternoon. It might have been better received after a win over Duke with ice cream in hand and an MVP trophy in her backpack. But Ellie knows they were just being the unwavering supporters that they have always been, and beneath the fire and the drive that she exhibits on the court at all times, there is also a sense of pride in making it to the other end of a hard road. The next step for her is a determination to make something special out of the opportunity.
All-American teammate Norah Sis (2) considers Bolton (1) “one of the most competitive people that I’ve ever played with” (Juszyk, WBR)
“I thought when I found out that I won the job it was going to be a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t,” Bolton said. “I left feeling like, ‘heck yeah it’s mine, and now I’m going to run with it and do what I can for this team.”
“I used to tell my parents that this was my Avery Skinner Year. She was an [outside hitter] at Kentucky who played her freshman year and was great, then got beat out the next two years. But she stuck with it and was a First Team All-American her senior year and now she’s on the U.S. National Team. She called that ‘delayed gratification’ and I wrote that down and kept telling myself that this season is going to be my Avery Skinner Year. Even during the hard moments that was my go-to quote. She was a big inspiration for me and a lot of other players.”
“It’s hard. It’s hard to stick with it. This is our lives. We do it every day. To stick with it, and not know, and keep battling is hard, but to come out of on the other side is rewarding. We still have a lot of work left to do, though. Both me personally and as a team.”