Creighton University
Evansville
Evansville Trumps Volleyball In Five Sets
10/16/2009 9:45:00 PM | Volleyball
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Sophomore Laurel Sanford had a career-high 16 kills, but it wasn't enough as the Creighton Volleyball team fell in five sets at Evansville on Friday night. Creighton won sets two and three in the match and won virtually every statistical category except the one that mattered most -- sets won.
Scores of Evansville's first win over Creighton since 2002 were 25-22, 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 15-11.
Evansville is now 11-9 on the season (4-4 MVC). Creighton dropped to 6-12 and is 3-5 in MVC play.
"In both game four and game five the issue was we dug ourselves big holes and we battled back in both," said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "We were up 9-8 and I thought had great momentum in the fifth game, but they made some plays and the rest is history. I think we just need to figure out how to win, and that's the challenge. Confidence at end-game, and as coaches we need to figure out how to make them feel confident that they're going to seize those points when its crunch time."
The teams exchanged the lead for the final time in the fifth set when Viera Rajcan put down a kill to give the Aces a 10-9 lead. The kill came during a late 6-1 spurt by UE that saw them come-from-behind to go ahead 14-10. Rajcan would be blocked on UE's first match-point opportunity before CU closed the match with a serving error.
In the fourth set that Booth mentioned Creighton fell behind 7-1 early and would eventually trail 15-7 before a huge comeback. Sanford and Alicia Runge would stuff Ginta Gabruseva to tie the score at 22, only to see UE score two of the next three points to go ahead 24-23. Foreshadowing the end of the match, UE would win the fourth set on a Bluejay service error.
Jessica Houts led all CU players with 17 kills and a .536 hitting percentage on 28 swings, while fellow middle Sanford added eight blocks to her career-best 16 kills. CU's outside hitters Sarah Shulze (10 kills, 17 digs) and Allie Oelke (13 kills, 13 digs) both produced double-doubles, while libero Nayka Benitez dug a team-best 22 balls. Freshman setter Megan Bober had 57 assists, 14 more than her previous career high. Creighton had 68 kills, seven aces, 78 digs and 12 blocks while hitting .236.
Evansville was led by 21 kills and 19 digs from Gabruseva. Hannah Wilson also had 15 kills for the Purple Aces. UE finished with 59 kills, three aces, 72 digs and 12 blocks while hitting .198.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday with a 7 pm match at Southern Illinois (13-5, 3-5 MVC).
NOTES: The Creighton men's soccer team, in town preparing for Saturday's soccer match against Evansville, was on hand at the match for the second straight season ...Laurel Sanford's previous best was 10 kills in a match ...Kirsten Bernthal Booth, who was celebrating her birthday on Friday, had been 12-0 against Evansville ...Sarah Schulze's double-double was her first of the season and fifth of her career, but first since 2007 ...Allie Oelke now owns a double-double in five of CU's first eight MVC matches and 22 overall in her career ...Creighton is now 1-4 in five-set matches and 0-11 when dropping the first set this season ...Creighton had been 108-5 under Booth when owning a better hitting percentage than its opponent ...In its 12 match losses, Creighton is 1-12 in sets decided by two points ...Nayka Benitez surpassed 300 digs in her 18th career match, second-fastest in school history (Bianca Rivera, 15) ...Creighton's 68 kills and 174 attempts were both season highs.
