Creighton University
DRAKE
Volleyball Sweeps Drake, Moves Into Fourth Place
11/7/2009 9:00:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- The Creighton volleyball team moved into a tie for fourth-place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 3-0 win over visiting Drake on Saturday night in Omaha. Scores of the match in favor of CU were 25-20, 25-21, 25-20.
Creighton is now 10-14 on the year, while Drake is 18-10 overall. Both teams are now 7-7 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
The host Bluejays won the match despite facing large deficits in each of the first two sets, which set the tone for the contest.
The first stanza saw Creighton fall behind 16-12 before sophomore Karisa Almgren came in to provide a spark. Behind two kills from Almgren and strong serving from freshman Lisa Greisch, the Jays would narrow the gap to 16-15. After knotting the score at 19-all, Megan Bober would serve four straight points, and the Jays would close out the set on a Bulldog attack error.
Creighton would face an even bigger hole in the second set, falling behind 18-13 before another extended Greisch serving run. Greisch served up a 9-0 flurry that saw the Jays collect three blocks and Drake record six attack errors en route to CU's 23-20 lead. The teams would then trade four sideouts to close the second set, with an Allie Oelke kill giving CU a 2-0 intermission advantage.
The third and final set featured Creighton building an 18-13 lead before Drake scored four straight to close within one point. The Bluejays would hold off the visitors though, as Jessica Houts teamed with Almgren to stuff Mikayla Sims on match point.
Oelke and Houts led CU with 10 kills each, with the latter hitting .391 and adding a match-best six blocks. Oelke would also collect a match-high 17 digs en route to her double-double. Creighton finished with 41 kills, three aces, 58 digs and 11 blocks while hitting .220.
Drake was paced by 11 kills on .526 hitting from freshman Emily Heffernen. Angela, who torched CU for 16 kills in Drake's 3-1 win in Des Moines last month, had nine kills and as many errors in 34 swings. Drake finished with 39 kills, one ace, 58 digs and six blocks while hitting .072.
Creighton steps out of conference on Tuesday when it hosts No. 21 Saint Louis for a 7 pm match at the Wayne and Eileen Ryan Athletic Center.
NOTES: Creighton has now won seven straight home matches against Drake ...Jessica Houts tied Korie Lebeda's school record by playing in her 119th career match ...Allie Oelke now owns eight double-doubles in MVC play and 25 double-dips in her career ...All 10 of Creighton's wins this year have come when the team records at least 10 blocks and wins the first set ...Creighton is now 7-3 at home this fall ...Jessica Houts had six block assists to give her 124 this year, second-most in CU history and trailing only Ashley Williams (143 in 2003) ...Laurel Sanford had three block assists, giving her 101 this fall. She is the fourth player in CU history with 100 or more block assists in a single season.
