Creighton University
Northern Iowa (Breast Cancer Awareness Night)
UNI Bests Volleyball Jays In Three on Digging For A Cure Night
10/20/2007 8:00:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton's defense produced 75 digs on Digging For A Cure Breast Cancer Awareness Night, but it wasn't enough as the host Bluejays were swept by Northern Iowa by a 30-24, 30-24, 30-25 margin on Saturday night. A crowd of 1,357, the school's largest ever at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, was on hand to watch two teams that are now tied for third in the MVC standings with 8-3 league records.
Creighton was swept despite having an advantage in both kills (47-45) and digs (75-71), due in part to 33 attack errors in the three-game match. Twelve of those miscues were the result of the league-leading Panther block, but the majority of them were unforced errors when the Jays fell out of system.
Creighton scored the first point in all three games, but would not lead at any other point during the match. UNI set the tone in game one, using a 12-3 run to pull ahead 27-15. Creighton's All-Valley MB Kelly Goc, who entered the match second in the MVC in both kills and attack percentage, had just one kill and hit -.273 in the opening set.
The second game proved to be similar to game one. With the Panthers leading 8-6, they embarked on an 11-6 run to push the lead to 19-12. Though CU did close to within 23-20, UNI would score seven of the final 11 points in the second game to take a 2-0 lead into intermission. Shannon Aschoff had five kills and hit .714 in the second game to lead UNI,
The third game was a carbon copy of the first two games, as UNI would maintain a comfortable 3-5 point cushion throughout before ultimately winning 30-25. Amy Sampson had seven of her match-high 13 kills in the final game, offsetting a balanced CU attack that saw four players record three kills or more.
UNI, which improved to 14-0 in Omaha all-time, was paced by 13 kills from Sampson. Kristin Belzung had 36 assists, 11 digs and five blocks while running the UNI offense, while freshman libero Ellie Blankenship paced the back row with 17 digs. UNI also owned a decisive 12-7.5 blocking advantage, including seven rejections from Omaha native Danielle Brazda. UNI hit .207 and finished with 45 kills, four aces, 71 digs and 12 blocks.
Creighton was led by 12 kills and 13 digs from Allie Oelke, the freshman's team-leading ninth double-double. Korie Lebeda had 36 assists, eight digs and seven kills while hitting .636, but it wasn't enough. Goc, who had owned 10 or more kills in CU's previous 14 matches, had just six kills in 28 swings and hit a season-low .000. CU's back row was paced by Bianca Rivera, who had 20 of the team's 75 digs. Creighton finished with 47 assists, three aces, 75 digs and 7.5 blocks while hitting under .100 for just the second time all year (.087).
Creighton returns to action next Friday at 6 pm (Central) with a match at Indiana State.
NOTES: The crowd of 1,357 was the Creighton's third-largest home crowd ever, and most-ever at the Omaha Civic Auditorium ...Creighton's season home attendance total of 21,447 is a school record ...Creighton's 75 digs rank fifth-most in school history for a three-game match ...UNI is now 29-2 all-time against Creighton ...Creighton's team wore pink uniforms as part of the Digging For the Cure Breast Cancer Awareness Night, while UNI's coaches wore pink shirts and its players wore pink socks ...Creighton libero Bianca Rivera has now had 14 or more digs in all 22 matches this season.
