Creighton University
Illinois
Volleyball Falls In Tourney Finale To Illinois
9/8/2007 4:45:00 PM | Volleyball
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The University of Illinois volleyball team defeated Creighton, 3-1, in the championship match of the State Farm Illini Classic on Saturday in Champaign, Ill. Scores of the match were 30-23, 17-30, 30-25, 30-22. Creighton drops to 4-4 while Illinois improves to 6-2.
Creighton lost the match despite a dominant second game that saw them record nine blocks in a 30-17 win. However, the Jays had just six total blocks in the other three games of the match.
Creighton hit negative as a team in both games three and four, making too many unforced errors to beat a top-tier Big 10 team. The Jays had 12 attack and five serving errors in game three, then added 11 hitting and three serving errors in game four. Illinois won game three by a 30-25 score before closing the match with a 30-22 win.
"I really thought we'd come out with some adrenaline and momentum in game three," said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth in her post-match radio interview. "Unfortunately, they (Illinois) were the ones that got the early start and got a big lead in game three. We tried to fight back but never really got back into it.
"We need this experience. We're going to face this sort of circumstance in conference," said Booth. "We're going to be in 1-1 situations against a very good team. We'll have to learn from it and go back to the gym so that next time there's a different outcome."
Kelly Goc and Allie Oelke led Creighton with 11 kills, while Bianca Rivera topped the defense with 18 digs. Houts had nine blocks while Goc had a hand in seven block assists. CU managed 42 kills, seven aces, 57 digs and 15 team blocks while hitting a season-low .071.
Laura DeBruler paced Illinois with 18 kills in 68 swings while adding 10 digs and three aces. Tournament MVP Vicki Brown had 16 kills and hit .423 for the Illini. Illinois finished with 52 kills, six aces, 72 digs and 11 blocks while hitting .118.
Creighton returns to action on Tuesday with a 7 pm match to open Missouri Valley Conference play at Drake. The match can be heard on KVSS (88.9 FM)
"Our most important match of the week no question is Tuesday night against Drake," said Booth. "We need to be ready to come out and play great volleyball. We definitely respect Drake and they are much improved from last year."
NOTES: The All-Tournament Team consisted of Illinois Vicki Brown (MVP), Lizzie Bazzetta and Laura DeBruler, Creighton's Jessica Houts and Bianca Rivera, Tennessee's Leah Hinkey and Marquette's Kimberley Todd.
