Creighton University
Evansville
Volleyball Jays Hit .380 In Sweep Over Purple Aces
11/4/2007 4:00:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Lauren Bloemke had 14 kills and seven blocks on .737 hitting while Allie Oelke had 17 kills and a career-high 25 digs to lead the Creighton volleyball team in a sweep over Evansville on Sunday. Scores of the match were 30-26, 30-17, 30-19.
Creighton is now 18-8 overall and alone in third place with a 12-3 league mark. The Jays can move into second place with a win in their next match on Friday at Missouri State (23-4, 12-2 MVC). Evansville dropped to 12-13 overall and is tied with Southern Illinois for the sixth spot in the MVC standings at 5-9.
Creighton's offense dominated from the start, recording 20 or more kills in all three games and hitting .380. CU finished with 67 kills, two aces, 78 digs and 9.5 blocks in its 10th straight win over the Purple Aces.
Danielle Diehl paced the Purple Aces with nine kills, five blocks and .350 hitting. UE had 36 kills, three aces, 50 digs and eight blocks while hitting .141.
Kelly Goc had seven kills in eight game one swings, while teammate Oelke had seven kills and six digs while hitting .500 in the opening set. Korie Lebeda had 21 assists in the first game. The Jays raced to an early 15-8 lead that they later extended to 25-17. UE made a late run, but it was too little, too late, before a Bloemke kill ended game one.
Creighton hit .538 with 23 kills in the second game. Six different players had three kills or more in the set, upping CU's attack percentage at intermission to .494. Oelke led the Jays with five kills and 10 digs in the second game. The Jays broke free from a 10-10 deadlock when Oelke served five straight points. CU led by four or more the rest of the way, and won the final five points on game two on Oelke's serve.
The Bluejays got seven kills in nine swings from Bloemke in the third game while also picking up 36 digs and 3.5 blocks as a team. CU stormed to a 4-0 lead with Sarah Schulze serving, extended it to 8-1 with Bloemke serving, and moved it to 12-2 with Oelke toeing the service line. A tandem block from Bloemke and Lebeda ended the match.
Creighton had four players with 10 kills or more, led by 17 kills on .433 hitting from Oelke. The MVC Freshman of the Year candidate also had a career-high 25 digs to notch her team-best 11th double-double of the year. Bloemke had 14 kills and seven blocks. Her .737 hitting in 19 errorless swings ranks third in program history (min. 12 kills) for a single-match. Fellow middle blocker Kelly Goc had 13 kills and hit .500 while Carolyn Decker slammed a season-best 11 kills as well. Lebeda finished with 52 assists, eight digs and six kills while setting the CU offense to .380 hitting. Bianca Rivera added 17 kills while Sarah Schulze had 13 digs and six kills.
NOTES: Creighton posted its 10th straight win over Evansville, tying its current hex over Southern Illinois for most consecutive wins over any opponent in program history ...Creighton's 64 assists are second-most, its 67 kills are third-most and its 78 digs are fourth-most in school history for a three-game match ...Allie Oelke's 25 digs are second-most in school history for a three-game match ...Creighton's .380 hitting was its second-best percentage of the year and tied for seventh-best all-time ...Creighton has now won four straight matches.
