Creighton University
MISSOURI STATE
First Place Missouri State Sweeps CU Volleyball
10/3/2009 9:15:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Missouri State moved into a share of first place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 3-0 sweep at Creighton on Saturday night. Scores of the match in favor of the visiting Bears were 25-22, 25-20, 25-19.
MSU is now 12-4 overall and 5-0 in the MVC, tied atop the league with Northern Iowa. Creighton is 6-10 overall and 3-3 in league play.
The first set would prove to be the closest of the match, as it featured eight ties and five lead changes. With the score tied at 13, Bethany Fuller would earn blocks each of the next two points to give MSU a lead it would not surrender. The Jays got within one point at 18-17, 19-18, 20-19 and 21-20 before Fuller had two more consecutive blocks to put MSU up 23-20 and in control. MSU had seven blocks in the first set to help overcome a feisty Bluejay defense that featured 24 first-set digs.
The second set was tied at 17 late before a CU serving error gave MSU the lead for good. Melissa Gmur would serve up five more points in a row as MSU went up 23-17 and took control of the set. A kill from Addie Foley gave the Bears a 2-0 intermission advantage. Creighton would outblock MSU 5-1 in the second set, but seven kills from Kelley Michnowicz would prove too much to overcome.
Creighton led 10-7 early in the third set before MSU's Shelby Strang served a seven-point run to give the Bears the lead for keeps. MSU out-dug CU 15-8 in the third set and owned 21 kills while hitting at a robust .515 clip.
Michnowicz led all players with 16 kills and two aces while hitting .536 in 28 swings. Fellow Bear teammate Foley had 13 kills and eight digs. Fuller had a hand in eight of MSU's 10 blocks on the evening. The Bears finished with 52 kills, three aces, 54 digs and 10 blocks while hitting .246.
Creighton was led offensively by Allie Oelke's 11 kills, but no other Bluejay had more than six kills. Sarah Schulze paced CU with 17 digs, while Megan Bober and Jessica Houts each had five blocks. Creighton had 38 kills, two aces, 54 digs and nine blocks while hitting .188 as a team.
Creighton will be on the road each of the next two weekends, beginning next Saturday night in a 7 pm contest at Drake. That contest can be heard on KOIL (1180 AM).
NOTES: Sarah Schulze led Creighton with 17 digs, the first time all season that Nayka Benitez did not lead CU in that category. Benitez would finish with 11 digs ...Nayka Benitez, who last night became the first player in CU history with consecutive matches of 30 or more digs, had that streak snapped at two ...Creighton has alternated wins and losses in its first six MVC matches ...The match was televised statewide by NET Sports, marking the first televised match from D.J. Sokol Arena ...Nayka Benitez did not have a serving error for the first time all season ...Creighton, which beat No. 25 Wichita State last night, has not beaten WSU and MSU in consecutive nights since 1997 ...Creighton had won the three previous meetings with Missouri State.
