Creighton University
Bradley
Volleyball Sweeps Braves, Improves To 14-7
10/19/2007 9:45:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Korie Lebeda had 44 assists, eight digs and tied a career-high with eight kills to lead the Creighton volleyball team to a 3-0 win over Bradley on Friday night in Omaha. Scores of the match were 30-21, 30-15, 30-23.
Creighton improved to 14-7 overall with the win and is in third place in the Missouri Valley Conference with an 8-2 mark. Bradley dropped to 2-20 and is 1-9 in Valley action.
Creighton totaled 60 kills, six aces, 71 digs and nine blocks while hitting .293 in the win. In addition to Lebeda's play, Kelly Goc had 19 kills and four blocks while hitting .444, while Allie Oelke had 14 kills and a pair of aces. Bianca Rivera had 21 digs in just three games, while Sarah Schulze (12 digs) and Katie Mehal (11 digs) were also part of a strong defense that finished with 71 digs.
Bradley finished with 33 kills, 58 digs and eight blocks while hitting .090. BU did not have any aces in 61 serving attempts. BU was paced by a dozen kills from Nikki Pierzchala. Katrina Goncher had eight kills and six blocks while Sam Black finished with 27 assists and nine digs.
Game one was by far the closest of the night, featuring 13 ties and six lead changes. The Bluejays trailed 14-13 before Bluejay coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth called a timeout. CU would regroup to take an 19-17 lead before consecutive aces from Lauren Bloemke pushed the lead to 21-17. CU would score nine of the final 12 game one points. Goc had six kills in 11 swings, while Lebeda got her night off to a strong start with 12 assists, four kills and three digs.
CU clicked on all cylinders in the second game. Leading 18-13 at one point, Mehal served the next 11 points as CU put together seven kills, an ace and three Bradley attack errors to build the lead. A kill from Carolyn Decker, her fourth of game two, gave the Jays a 2-0 lead heading to intermission.
Both Goc and Oelke had seven kills apiece in the third game. The Jays fell behind 14-9 at one point before rallying back to knot the score at 15-all. The Jays used a five-point burst with Lebeda serving to go up 22-18, and Mehal served the final three points of the match, which included a double-block by Lebeda and Goc to end it.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday at 7 pm with a match against Northern Iowa (13-9, 7-3 MVC). The match is Breast Cancer Awareness Night and Creighton will be wearing specially-designed pink uniforms. The team also requests its fans wear pink to the match.
NOTES: Kelly Goc's 19 kills were one off her career-high ...Bianca Rivera's 21 digs are fourth-most in CU history for a three-game match ...Each of Creighton's last six matches have been 3-0 sweeps, with the Jays winning four of those matches ...The last Creighton opponent without an ace was Indiana State on Oct. 27, 2006 ...Creighton moved over the 20,000 home fans for the second straight season, and is now just 850 fans from the school record of 20,940 set last year ...Carolyn Decker's five kills were a season-high.
