Volleyball Hosts No. 20 UNI in Friday Semifinal
11/27/2009 2:00:00 AM | Volleyball
#20 Northern Iowa (28-2) at Creighton (14-16)
D.J. Sokol Arena • Omaha, Neb.
Nov. 27, 2009 • 6:00 pm Central
• You can be sure revenge will on the mind of the Bluejay seniors tonight in its match-up against Northern Iowa. The Panthers have ended the Creighton season in the semifinals each of the past three years, and in the quarterfinals in 2005.
Before tonight, in league history two schools have met in five straight MVC Tournaments on just two previous occasions.
Northern Iowa and Illinois State met in five straight years from 1997-2001. ISU won the 1997 meeting before the Panthers won the next four.
Likewise, from 1986-1990, Missouri State and UNI met five straight years. However, that series saw UNI win three and MSU two.
• Northern Iowa beat Creighton in both meetings this season, but both contests went four sets. The match in Omaha on Sept. 19th featured 45 ties and 18 lead changes before UNI emerged with a 25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 28-26 triumph. The first set in that match was tied at 23 before UNI won, while Creighton squandered a pair of set points in the fourth set that could have forced a fifth set.
When the teams met in Cedar Falls last weekend, it was almost as close, with 23 ties and seven lead changes during UNI's 25-19, 21-25, 25-17, 25-21 win. In both the first and third sets, the score was tied 14-14 before UNI used a 6-0 run to go ahead 20-14 and win the set. The fourth set saw Creighton close within 21-20 before a Jessica Houts hitting error on a UNI overpass turned the momentum. Creighton middle blocker Laurel Sanford, who ranks second in the MVC in blocks per set (1.31), did not play in that match due to a pair of dislocated fingers in her left hand.
• Creighton is 1-37 all-time against ranked teams, but that victory came this season when it beat then-No. 25 Wichita State, 3-1, on October 2nd. Northern Iowa is ranked 20th in this week's poll. Creighton is 0-8 all-time against ranked UNI squads, never going beyond four sets.
• Creighton's win on Thursday was its school-record 10th of the year, one more than the mark of nine set in 2008. The Jays are now 10-4 at home this season, with losses to teams currently ranked No. 5 (Illinois), No. 20 (Northern Iowa), No. 22 (Saint Louis) and unranked Missouri State.
• Creighton improved to 4-10 all-time in the State Farm MVC Tournament all-time, including a 3-6 mark under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. The Jays are 0-4 in the semifinals all-time, with all four setbacks coming at the hands of Northern Iowa.
• Creighton is 3-34 all-time against Northern Iowa, including an 0-5 mark in the MVC Tournament and a 1-15 mark in Omaha. The lone home win came last year, when Creighton thumped UNI 3-0 on Nov. 21, 2008 in the last week of the regular-season.
• Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 3-15 all-time against Northern Iowa and her good friend, Bobbi Petersen.
• Creighton has played in 112 sets this season, four shy of the school record of 116 that the 2006 squad played in. Creighton's match on Friday will also be its 31st in a season, tying the mark held by the 2006 and 2007 clubs.
• Creighton owns 99 home wins all-time. The Jays are 99-86 (.535), with those matches taking place in seven different “home” facilities. Friday's match will be Creighton's 15th home contest of the season, establishing another record.
• Creighton is 25-10 in November in the past five seasons. Six of those 10 losses have come to UNI, with two of the others coming against ranked competition.
• Creighton has won 10 straight home matches played on a Friday. Its last Friday home loss came on Aug. 29, 2008 against No. 16 Minnesota.
• Creighton is 13-8 when posting 10 or more blocks in a match this season, but 1-8 when failing to reach double-digit stuffs.
• Allie Oelke has had 10 or more digs in 14 straight matches, tied for the sixth-longest spell in school history. Among outside hitters, that ranks one behind the record of 15 straight matches of double-digit digs set by Abby Baumann in 2006.
• Allie Oelke owns a double-double in all four MVC Tournament matches she's appeared in. That gives her one more than Creighton legends Melissa Walsh, Kailey Reyes and Korie Lebeda and is a school record in league tourney action.
• Allie Oelke owns a Creighton-high 12 double-doubles this season. Of Oelke's 29 career double-doubles, all but two have come against MVC opponents. Only five players in CU history have had 30 or more double-doubles in a career.
• Jessica Houts has played in a school-record 125 matches. Her last 75 appearances have been starts.
• Jessica Houts owns 165 blocks this season, five behind the school-record mark of 170 set by Ashley Williams in 2003.
• Jessica Houts enters tonight's match with 1,374 career kills. She's two kills shy of passing JoDe Cieloha (1994-97) for fourth-place in CU history for career kills.
• The .455 hitting percentage last night by Jessica Houts (12-2-22) was the best in CU's MVC Tournament history among players with a minimum of 10 or more swings.
• Jessica Houts' 21 blocks in MVC Tournament play are also a school-record.
• Jessica Houts owns 536 career block assists. That ranks fourth-most in MVC history and trails third-place Ashten Stelken's 540 by just a handful (if you're Homer Simpson, that is).
• Creighton has just three seniors, starters Jessica Houts and Sarah Schulze, and injured senior Lauren Bloemke. Bloemke is still recovering from off-season ACL surgery and will apply for a medical redshirt at season's end.
• Sarah Schulze had seven digs against Drake last night, giving her 77 in her MVC Tournament career. Only Bianca Rivera (79) has more in CU history.
• Junior libero Nayka Benitez now owns exactly 500 digs this season, tied for third-most in single-season Creighton history with her predecessor, fellow Puerto Rican Bianca Rivera. Rivera set the school record with 618 digs in 2007 and had 500 digs last fall. Benitez reached 500 career digs in 30 career matches, second-fastest in CU history behind Rivera's 25.
• With three aces against Drake, Nayka Benitez now owns 42 aces this fall, That's fifth-most in CU history, and the second-most ever by a Bluejay junior. Benitez's three aces on Thursday tied a school-record for an MVC Tournament match, done twice before.
• Megan Bober owns 99 block assists, and needs one more to join Jessica Houts and Laurel Sanford with 100 or more block assists in a season. Prior to this fall, Creighton had just three players ever to record 100 block assists in a single-season, a group that included Houts (three times), JoDe Cieloha (twice) and Ashley Williams (once).
D.J. Sokol Arena • Omaha, Neb.
Nov. 27, 2009 • 6:00 pm Central
• You can be sure revenge will on the mind of the Bluejay seniors tonight in its match-up against Northern Iowa. The Panthers have ended the Creighton season in the semifinals each of the past three years, and in the quarterfinals in 2005.
Before tonight, in league history two schools have met in five straight MVC Tournaments on just two previous occasions.
Northern Iowa and Illinois State met in five straight years from 1997-2001. ISU won the 1997 meeting before the Panthers won the next four.
Likewise, from 1986-1990, Missouri State and UNI met five straight years. However, that series saw UNI win three and MSU two.
• Northern Iowa beat Creighton in both meetings this season, but both contests went four sets. The match in Omaha on Sept. 19th featured 45 ties and 18 lead changes before UNI emerged with a 25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 28-26 triumph. The first set in that match was tied at 23 before UNI won, while Creighton squandered a pair of set points in the fourth set that could have forced a fifth set.
When the teams met in Cedar Falls last weekend, it was almost as close, with 23 ties and seven lead changes during UNI's 25-19, 21-25, 25-17, 25-21 win. In both the first and third sets, the score was tied 14-14 before UNI used a 6-0 run to go ahead 20-14 and win the set. The fourth set saw Creighton close within 21-20 before a Jessica Houts hitting error on a UNI overpass turned the momentum. Creighton middle blocker Laurel Sanford, who ranks second in the MVC in blocks per set (1.31), did not play in that match due to a pair of dislocated fingers in her left hand.
• Creighton is 1-37 all-time against ranked teams, but that victory came this season when it beat then-No. 25 Wichita State, 3-1, on October 2nd. Northern Iowa is ranked 20th in this week's poll. Creighton is 0-8 all-time against ranked UNI squads, never going beyond four sets.
• Creighton's win on Thursday was its school-record 10th of the year, one more than the mark of nine set in 2008. The Jays are now 10-4 at home this season, with losses to teams currently ranked No. 5 (Illinois), No. 20 (Northern Iowa), No. 22 (Saint Louis) and unranked Missouri State.
• Creighton improved to 4-10 all-time in the State Farm MVC Tournament all-time, including a 3-6 mark under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. The Jays are 0-4 in the semifinals all-time, with all four setbacks coming at the hands of Northern Iowa.
• Creighton is 3-34 all-time against Northern Iowa, including an 0-5 mark in the MVC Tournament and a 1-15 mark in Omaha. The lone home win came last year, when Creighton thumped UNI 3-0 on Nov. 21, 2008 in the last week of the regular-season.
• Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 3-15 all-time against Northern Iowa and her good friend, Bobbi Petersen.
• Creighton has played in 112 sets this season, four shy of the school record of 116 that the 2006 squad played in. Creighton's match on Friday will also be its 31st in a season, tying the mark held by the 2006 and 2007 clubs.
• Creighton owns 99 home wins all-time. The Jays are 99-86 (.535), with those matches taking place in seven different “home” facilities. Friday's match will be Creighton's 15th home contest of the season, establishing another record.
• Creighton is 25-10 in November in the past five seasons. Six of those 10 losses have come to UNI, with two of the others coming against ranked competition.
• Creighton has won 10 straight home matches played on a Friday. Its last Friday home loss came on Aug. 29, 2008 against No. 16 Minnesota.
• Creighton is 13-8 when posting 10 or more blocks in a match this season, but 1-8 when failing to reach double-digit stuffs.
• Allie Oelke has had 10 or more digs in 14 straight matches, tied for the sixth-longest spell in school history. Among outside hitters, that ranks one behind the record of 15 straight matches of double-digit digs set by Abby Baumann in 2006.
• Allie Oelke owns a double-double in all four MVC Tournament matches she's appeared in. That gives her one more than Creighton legends Melissa Walsh, Kailey Reyes and Korie Lebeda and is a school record in league tourney action.
• Allie Oelke owns a Creighton-high 12 double-doubles this season. Of Oelke's 29 career double-doubles, all but two have come against MVC opponents. Only five players in CU history have had 30 or more double-doubles in a career.
• Jessica Houts has played in a school-record 125 matches. Her last 75 appearances have been starts.
• Jessica Houts owns 165 blocks this season, five behind the school-record mark of 170 set by Ashley Williams in 2003.
• Jessica Houts enters tonight's match with 1,374 career kills. She's two kills shy of passing JoDe Cieloha (1994-97) for fourth-place in CU history for career kills.
• The .455 hitting percentage last night by Jessica Houts (12-2-22) was the best in CU's MVC Tournament history among players with a minimum of 10 or more swings.
• Jessica Houts' 21 blocks in MVC Tournament play are also a school-record.
• Jessica Houts owns 536 career block assists. That ranks fourth-most in MVC history and trails third-place Ashten Stelken's 540 by just a handful (if you're Homer Simpson, that is).
• Creighton has just three seniors, starters Jessica Houts and Sarah Schulze, and injured senior Lauren Bloemke. Bloemke is still recovering from off-season ACL surgery and will apply for a medical redshirt at season's end.
• Sarah Schulze had seven digs against Drake last night, giving her 77 in her MVC Tournament career. Only Bianca Rivera (79) has more in CU history.
• Junior libero Nayka Benitez now owns exactly 500 digs this season, tied for third-most in single-season Creighton history with her predecessor, fellow Puerto Rican Bianca Rivera. Rivera set the school record with 618 digs in 2007 and had 500 digs last fall. Benitez reached 500 career digs in 30 career matches, second-fastest in CU history behind Rivera's 25.
• With three aces against Drake, Nayka Benitez now owns 42 aces this fall, That's fifth-most in CU history, and the second-most ever by a Bluejay junior. Benitez's three aces on Thursday tied a school-record for an MVC Tournament match, done twice before.
• Megan Bober owns 99 block assists, and needs one more to join Jessica Houts and Laurel Sanford with 100 or more block assists in a season. Prior to this fall, Creighton had just three players ever to record 100 block assists in a single-season, a group that included Houts (three times), JoDe Cieloha (twice) and Ashley Williams (once).
Players Mentioned
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/ Volleyball
MB
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MB
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RS/OH
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MB
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OH
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