Megan Ballenger is Creighton’s utility player that does it all (Spomer / WBR)
In keeping with her gauntlet-style scheduling of seasons past, Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth didn’t provide her team with a soft landing as they returned to Omaha to open up their 2018 home schedule. Fresh off three consecutive sweeps at the SMU DoubleTree Classic in Dallas, Texas last weekend, the 14th-ranked Bluejays get three matches in four days. One match is against the reigning national champions, two are against teams that are currently knocking on the door of the top 25, and all three are against teams no one looks forward to playing in December. Let’s take a look at the slate the Jays will face this weekend on the other side of the net…
Thursday, Sep. 6 at 7:00 p.m. vs. No. 7 Nebraska
The Huskers return seven player, including two starters and their libero, from last season’s National Championship team. Headlining that group of returners is a two-time Final Four Most Outstanding Player in Mikaela Foecke. Five matches into her senior campaign the three-time All-American outside hitter from West Point, Iowa is hitting .299 and averaging a team-high 3.41 kills per set for the 4-1 Huskers. Sophomore outside hitter Jazz Sweet has the skills to match her name and comes in behind only Foecke on the team with 3.06 kills per set on an efficient .294 attack percentage. Senior Kenzie Maloney returns to anchor Nebraska’s back row as the libero. She’s averaging 3.65 digs per set so far this season, a strong start to the year after earning a spot on the NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team in 2017. 6-foot-5 freshman Callie Schwarzenbach and 6-foot-4 sophomore Lauren Stivrins former a dynamic duo of twin towers in the middle. Schwarzenbach leads the team with 1.35 blocks per set, while Stivrins is second on the team at 1.12. Both are also hitting over .300 on the season to provide a plethora of options offensively for freshman setter Nicklin Hames.
The Huskers also have an ace in the hole with Texas transfer Lexi Sun. The sophomore outside hitter was the No. 1 recruit in the country and averaged 3.27 kills per set as a freshman last season, earning an honorable mention All-America honor and a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team before transferring to Lincoln. Sun has yet to play in a match this season as she recovers from an undisclosed injury, but she took part in warm-ups prior to Nebraska’s last match, so she may be ready in time to make her Huskers’ debut in front of the record crowd that is expected to be on hand at the CHI Health Center Omaha on Thursday night.
Booth on the Huskers:
“They’re a great team. Foecke is one of the best outsides in the country. I like both of their middles a lot. Stivrins obviously is carrying a little bit more offensive load. Sweet’s doing a great job. So they have a formidable attack all over. I think they are a really great serving team and a great passing team. Serve and pass on both sides I think is going to be really critical for each team. They are a great team. One thing that Nebraska is fortunate with is they get to reload each year. Usually they have one of the top two or three recruiting classes in the country, and that’s the draw to Nebraska Volleyball. Those kids come in with a lot of high level experience and I think you are seeing that with their setter. She’s coming in as a young freshman, but she’s playing at a very high level very early in her career.”
On preparing for injured Texas transfer Lexi Sun:
“Fortunately with the access to film nowadays we’ll be able to watch her in a Texas uniform, not in a Nebraska uniform. We obviously can pull some of her tendencies perhaps from there. We didn’t play Texas last year, but we know she was the No. 1 recruit in the country and had a phenomenal freshman year up until the end. She’s a great player and we are preparing for both scenarios.”
Series History: Nebraska leads the all-time series 15-0.
Friday, Sep. 7 at 6:00 p.m. vs. No. 26 Iowa State
The Cyclones bring a 5-2 record with them to Omaha, highlighted by a 3-0 road win over a Northern Iowa team that was days removed from sweeping Creighton out in Los Angeles. Senior outside hitter Jess Schaben leads the team in kills with 80 and kills per set at 3.20. Not far off her pace are senior middle blocker Grace Lazard and freshman right side Eleanor Holthaus. Lazard comes in third at 2.80 kills per set, but leads the team with an impressively efficient .354 attack percentage on 144 attempts, while also leading the way with 1.28 blocks per set. Holthaus was ranked as a top 60 recruit nationally by PrepVolleyball.com. The true freshman from Richmond, Minnesota has hit the ground running at the Division 1 level, averaging 2.92 kills per set to go along with a .344 attack percentage and 20 blocks in her first seven career matches. Iowa State also has a three-year starter at libero anchoring the defensive in redshirt junior Hali Hillegas. The 2017 Big 12 Libero of the Year currently ranks 20th in the country with 5.64 digs per set to lead a defense that backs up a front row which is ranked 15th in the nation with 2.94 blocks per set.
Booth on the Cyclones:
“They look really, really good. They particularly looked good in the Northern Iowa match. Schaben is just carrying so much load for them again. I like their middles. I feel like they are running at a faster tempo. I like a lot of what they are doing.”
Series History: Iowa State leads the all-time series 5-4.
Sunday, Sep. 9 at 2:00 p.m. vs. No. 32 Wichita State
The only two blemishes on the Shockers’ ledger so far this season are a pair of 3-0 losses to No. 3 BYU and No. 4 Stanford. They own wins over Creighton in each of the last two season since this tournament’s inception, including a five-setter in Ames in which the Shockers rallied from a 2-0 deficit to stun the Bluejays. Senior outside hitter Tabitha Brown leads the team with 3.00 kills per set to go along with 2.21 digs per set as a six-rotation player. Wichita State’s blocking numbers don’t jump off the page at you, but some of that is a byproduct of facing two top five teams that aren’t very easy to stifle at the net. They do rely on a pair of 6-foot-3 sophomores in that department in Abby Pugh and Emma Wright. Pugh leads the team in hitting at a .402 clip to go along with 11 blocks, while Wright is second in attack percentage at .365 and first in blocks with 15.
Booth on the Shockers:
“We are going to have our hands full. They do some unorthodox things that sometimes causes us problems, so we’ve got to get our head around that and figure out a game plan on how to deal with it. I didn’t think we dealt with it well last year. We’ll have to figure that out and hopefully play a better match than we did last year against them.”
Series History: The all-time series is tied 23-23.