Creighton University
Missouri State
Missouri State Wins Tight Match With Volleyball
10/30/2009 9:00:00 PM | Volleyball
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Missouri State completed a regular-season sweep of Creighton on Friday night with a 25-22, 25-21, 26-24 victory over the visiting Bluejays on Friday night at Hammons Student Center. Creighton had leads of four or more points in each set, but could not hold on against the host Bears.
Creighton had its season-high three-match win streak snapped, falling to 9-13 (6-6 MVC). Missouri State improved to 16-7 (9-2 MVC) while snapping a three-match losing streak of its own.
Creighton led 12-7 early in the first set, only to see Melissa Gmur serve a 7-0 run later in the set. Creighton would lead 21-20, but surrendered five of the next six points to fall by a 25-22 margin.
The second set saw Creighton fall behind 5-3 early before a MSU serving error made it a one-point deficit. Libero Nayka Benitez then served an incredible five aces in a row to get CU the lead. The Bluejay lead would reach as large as 17-13, but six consecutive points by MSU would prove too much to overcome in an eventual 25-21 loss.
Creighton led 21-17 late in the third set, only to see MSU use a 6-1 run to take a 23-22 lead. The teams would then exchange four straight sideouts. Missouri State would get to match point when Sara Staubach planted her match-high 17th kill, and won the contest when the up official overruled the line judge and called Oelke's swing out, much to the dismay of the Bluejay bench.
"We did a lot of great things but got stuck in different rotations each set we couldn't get out of," said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "I'm really disappointed that we didn't take care of things at the end of games. As coaches, we have to inspire our kids to play their best at the end, and we didn't do that tonight."
Houts led Creighton with nine kills while hitting .300, with Alicia Runge owning eight kills on the evening. Benitez finished with five of CU's eight aces, and Oelke and Sarah Schulze tied for team-best honors with 13 digs each. CU's block was paced by eight stuffs from both Laurel Sanford and Megan Bober. Creighton finished with 27 kills, eight aces, 50 digs and 16 blocks while hitting .063.
Missouri State was led by 17 kills form Staubach, who needed 50 swings to reach that figure. Cara Hackmann had 25 digs on the evening to lead all players, while Gmur had four of MSU's six aces. The Bears finished with 42 kills, six aces, 71 digs and five blocks while hitting .118.
Creighton returns to action tomorrow night with a 7 pm match at Wichita State (17-4, 8-3 MVC).
NOTES: Creighton's 16 blocks in three sets give the team 36 blocks in its last six sets played ...Creighton, which entered the week third nationally in blocks per set, upped its season average to 3.13 blocks per set ...The five aces by Nayka Benitez were the most by any CU player this season.
