Creighton University
Southern Illinois
Volleyball Takes Down SIU, 3-1
10/17/2009 9:45:00 PM | Volleyball
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Jessica Houts had a team-best 15 kills and served up all three of her aces in the fourth set as the Creighton volleyball team picked up a 3-1 road win at Southern Illinois on Saturday night. Scores in favor of CU were 26-24, 19-25, 25-20, 25-21.
Creighton is now 7-12 overall and 4-5 MVC at the midway point of the league race, good for a tie for fifth place. Southern Illinois, which went 10-0 in pre-conference play, lost its fourth consecutive match to fall to 13-6 (3-6 MVC). The Bluejays have now won 14 straight meetings with Southern Illinois, its longest run in program history over another opponent.
"I don't think either Creighton or SIU played gorgeous ball tonight, but the point was we did some good things and got a victory," said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "A win can really do some good things psychologically. Now we go back to our home court to play two matches against teams that we went five (sets) with before. I've challenged our kids to go back and have a good week of practice."
Creighton started slow in the first set but would rally when it mattered most, saving two set points to eventually win the first set 26-24. The Jays trailed 20-17 late before scoring four in a row to take their first lead of the night at 21-20. Though SIU would reclaim the lead and serve the set at 24-22, the Jays would get kills from Houts and Sarah Schulze to knot the score. Schulze then put down her fourth kill of the set to get CU to set point, and Megan Bober followed with her first kill of the night as CU took the early lead in the match. Allie Oelke had seven of CU's 26 digs and Laurel Sanford had four kills and four blocks for the Jays.
"I thought the first game was pivotal because we were in a situation where we had to step up and win, and we nailed a pass to get a sideout and then scored some points from behind the line while playing to win," said Booth.
Southern Illinois never trailed while winning the second set by a 25-19 margin, as Creighton made seven serving errors in the set. SIU was ahead 11-6 early and maintained a comfortable lead to tie the match heading into intermission.
Creighton led from start to finish in the third set, once again finishing strong to take a 25-20 victory. Creighton's lead had narrowed to 20-19 before the Jays went on a 5-1 run to close the set, forcing three consecutive Saluki hitting errors to end the frame.
The fourth set proved to be a game of runs before key serving from Houts keyed CU to victory. With the score tied at 14, Houts would serve up her third ace of the set to help CU to a 17-14 lead. The Jays would maintain a lead of two or more the rest of the match, clinching the road win with a kill by Oelke. Houts had five kills in nine swings during the final set.
"Jess' serve was huge in the fourth game," said Booth. "Even when she wasn't getting aces she was getting them out of system, which made them struggle."
Houts led CU with 15 kills, hitting .367, and she tied a season-high with three aces. Oelke (14 kills, 15 digs) and Bober (42 assists, 12 digs) both had double-doubles, while Sanford had six kills and a career-high 12 blocks. Creighton finished with 55 kills, four aces, 60 digs and 15 blocks while hitting .211.
SIU was paced by 17 kills and 19 digs from Alicia Johnson, who also hit .350. All-Valley performer Jennifer Berwanger was limited to nine kills and 11 digs in 32 swings, hitting just .062. The Salukis had 54 kills, two aces, 74 digs and seven blocks and hit .159 on the evening.
Creighton returns to action next Friday when it hosts Illinois State at 7 pm. That contest can be heard on KOIL (1180 AM).
NOTES: Creighton wore its pink uniforms as part of Southern Illinois' "Dig For A Cure" Breast Cancer Awareness Night. The Jays will have their own such night next Saturday evening against Indiana State ...Allie Oelke had her sixth double-double in nine MVC matches, and third straight ...Laurel Sanford, who had a career-high with 16 kills last night, had a career-high with 12 blocks on Saturday night ...Sanford's 12 blocks were second-most in CU history for a four-set match, trailing only the 14 by Jessica Houts earlier this season against Lipscomb ...Creighton improved to 23-9 all-time against SIU with its 14th straight win in the series, including an 11-5 mark in Carbondale ...
