Booth Wins 100th Match As Volleyball Handles Drake
10/31/2008 10:15:00 PM | Volleyball
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Kirsten Bernthal Booth became the first Creighton Volleyball coach to 100 wins as the Bluejays won a 3-1 decision at Drake. Scores of Creighton's win were 25-17, 25-20, 24-26, 25-18. The Bluejays are 12-8 overall and 9-3 in the MVC, while Drake lost its ninth straight to fall to 9-17 (2-10 MVC).
Booth seemed more relieved with the team win than focusing on her 100th individual victory with the Jays. "It's been fun and obviously I've been fortunate to surround myself with good players and coaches over the years," said Booth.
Creighton broke away from a close first set to win going away, 25-17. With the score tied at 14 midway through set one, the Jays began to take over. Creighton scored four of the following six points to go ahead 18-16. CU then scored seven of the final eight points, finishing off the win with an ace by Bianca Rivera.
The second set was also tightly contested for much of the way. A kill from Jessica Houts gave CU a 15-12 lead, but the teams then traded 13 straight sideouts, all of which were points that ended in kills. Finally the Bulldogs would blink though, as Angela Bys was blocked by Allie Oelke and Jessica Houts to give CU a 22-18 margin and force a Drake timeout. Back-to-back kills from Amanda Cvjelik sealed the 25-20 win.
Drake held off two potential match points to steal the third set. Creighton got kills from Carolyn Decker and Cvejdlik to go ahead 24-22, only to be stunned as Drake scored the next four points. The Bulldogs got kills from Michelle Reidy, Lindsay Schryver and Mikayla Sims gave them a set-point opportunity. A Bluejay attack error sent it to a fourth set.
In the fourth stanza, Creighton trailed 14-11 but would score nine of the next 10 points to take the lead for good. Rivera's fourth ace gave the Jays a comfortable 23-18 lead as the Jays closed out the match with a 25-18 triumph.
Creighton was led by 15 kills from Cvejdlk, who also hit a team-best .375. Houts finished wiht 12 kills while Oelke had 11 putaways. Korie Lebeda had a double-double with 44 assists, 13 digs and six kills while surpassing the 5,000 assist milestone and Rivera had a season-high four aces to go with a match-best 22 digs. Creighton had 61 kills, six aces, 71 digs and 11 blocks while hitting .230.
"I thought Amanda Cvejdlik had a great night when we needed someone to get us over the hump. Laurel Sanford also came in and made a difference offensively," noted Booth.
Drake was paced by 12 kills from Angela Bys, while Mikayla Sims had 11. Drake finished with 46 kills, three aces, 63 digs and seven blocks while hitting .125.
"It's definitely good to get out of Drake with a win," said Booth. "I was disappointed that we didn't get it done in three sets, but we did come back after we lost an emotional third game and were down four points in the fourth set."
Creighton returns home next Friday (Nov. 7) when it hosts Indiana State. First serve is set for 7 pm Central.
NOTES: Creighton is now 3-1 all-time when playing on Halloween night ...Jessica Houts now has 345 career block assists, two shy of Ashley Williams' school record of 347 ...Korie Lebeda became the eighth player in MVC history with 5,000 or more assists on a fourth-set assist to Jessica Houts ...Bianca Rivera owns 12 straight matches with 16 digs or more ...Creighton has not swept Drake in Des Moines since 2003 ...Korie Lebeda had her 13th double-double of the year and her 10th in 12 MVC matches this fall.
