Creighton University
Samford
Volleyball Tops Samford at Dayton Flyer Classic, 3-0
9/11/2009 5:30:00 PM | Volleyball
DAYTON, Ohio -- The Creighton volleyball team snapped a five-match losing streak with a 3-0 win over Samford on Friday in play at the Dayton Flyer Classic in Dayton, Ohio. Creighton improved to 2-5 with the 25-23, 27-25, 25-15 victory, while Samford fell to 3-4.
"It was a big win, there's no question," said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "It's about the process in this program, but at some point you need to get a victory. I didn't think we played very well in the first two games, but we had opportunities to lose those games and last weekend in those opportunities we lost, we folded. This weekend we stepped up and won. The biggest thing today was that we learned how to win, and I hope that can transfer to future matches."
Creighton trailed 21-17 late in the first set before an 8-2 run gave it a 25-23 decision. With the score even at 23-all, Jessica Houts put down her fifth kill of the set and then Laurel Sanford and Megan Bober combined for a block to give the Jays a 1-0 lead in the match.
Creighton pulled another rabbit out of its hat in the second set, withstanding three Samford set points to take a 27-25 victory. The Jays trailed 24-22 late, only to come back to tie the score on consecutive hitting errors by Allie Bettinger. Though CU served long to give the Bulldogs a third set point opportunity, the Jays answered when Houts and Bober blocked Bettinger. A kill by Houts gave CU its first set point chance of the second stanza, which CU took advantage of when Bettinger made yet another attack error. The second set featured 21 ties and 10 lead changes.
Creighton turned its 9-7 lead in the third set into an 19-11 runaway and cruised to a 25-15 win, capping its first win in two weeks with an Allie Oelke kill. Creighton hit .263 in the third set while holding Samford to -.071 hitting on 28 swings.
Houts led Creighton with nine kills while also hitting .381, while Nayka Benitez led the defense with six digs. Bober added 22 assists, five kills and a match-best five blocks for CU. Creighton finished with 32 kills, four aces and 25 digs while hitting .163.
Samford was paced by Sheriden Stangohr, who owned a match-best 10 kills and hit .471. The Bulldogs had 30 kills, four aces and 33 digs while hitting .054. Samford was hurt by 15 errors in 64 attempts at the service line.
Creighton will play twice tomorrow, beginning with a Noon match against Connecticut. CU ends the tournament with a 6 pm match against tournament host Dayton. Both Creighton matches can be heard on KOIL (1180 AM), while Saturday's nightcap vs. Dayton will have free live video at http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=dayt.
NOTES: Samford went 28-5 last year and won the Southern Conference with a 16-2 league mark ...This was the first-ever meeting against Samford ...Freshman Caitlin Templeton entered late in the third set for her first career action ...Redshirt freshman setter Megan Bober, who had played every point in the first six matches, took her first seat on the bench for the final two points of the match.
