Creighton University
NORTHERN IOWA
Volleyball Drops Tight Home Match to UNI
9/19/2009 10:00:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton junior Alicia Runge hit .341 and had a career-high 17 kills, but it wasn't enough as the Northern Iowa volleyball team defeated the host Bluejays in four sets at D.J. Sokol Arena on Saturday night. Scores of the match in favor of UNI were 25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 28-26.
Northern Iowa won its ninth straight match to improve to 11-2 overall and 2-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Creighton fell to 3-8 overall and is 1-1 in league action.
"I thought we played pretty well," said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "I think as a coach with a young team we have to look at are we making strides and going in the right direction and I think today was a step in the right direction. Northern Iowa did a couple things repeatedly that we didn't make adjustments on and hopefully next time we play them we can make those adjustments. But I walk away saying we played a pretty good match."
Four Panther players had 10 or more kills, led by 18 each from Shannon Aschoff and Michelle Burow. UNI setter Bre Payton had a triple-double 42 assists, 21 digs and 12 kills, hitting .375 in 24 swings. Additionally, Panther libero Ellie Blankenship had a match-high 28 digs en route to setting the school's all-time digs record for a career. UNI had 68 kills, one ace, 86 digs and nine blocks while hitting .179.
Runge paced Creighton with 17 kills while tying her career-high with five blocks. Also with a career-high was Laurel Sanford, who had 10 kills to go with six blocks. MVC blocks leader Jessica Houts had nine rejections while becoming the first Bluejay in school history to surpass 500 blocks in a career. Nayka Benitez led CU with 19 digs. The Bluejays hit .167 and finished with 49 kills, two aces, 72 digs and 16 blocks.
UNI won a back-and-forth first set that featured 13 ties and five lead changes. After UNI scored five straight to go ahead 19-13, Creighton answered with six in a row with Benitez serving to even the score at 19. Creighton would even take leads of 21-20 and 22-21 before the Panthers closed out the set by scoring four of the final five points. Burow had seven kills to lead UNI in the first set, while Blankenship had 12 digs in the first set alone.
UNI won a second set that was almost as close, taking a 25-22 decision. The Panthers used 17 kills and 19 digs in the second set to overcome four CU blocks in the second set.
Creighton extended the match by taking a 25-22 third set, fueled by six kills in eight swings from Runge. With the score even at 20, Houts and Allie Oelke teamed to block Kali Karsten and give CU the lead for good. Sanford and Runge blocked Amy Braun for the final point of the third set.
The fourth set was one for the ages with both teams saving set points before UNI emerged with a 28-26 victory to claim the match. Creighton survived a UNI match point opportunity at 24-23 when Braun made an attack error. The Jays then had chances to force a fifth set at both 25-24 and 26-25, only to see UNI respond with a kill each time. The Panthers would tie it at 26 on a Braun kill, go ahead 27-26 on a Payton kill and close the match when Burow split the middle of the Bluejay back row with a kill to end it. Payton nearly had a triple-double in fourth set alone with 11 assists, 10 digs and six kills in eight swings.
Creighton steps out of conference on Tuesday when it hosts South Dakota State in a 6 pm match. That contest can be heard on KOIL (1180 AM).
NOTES: Creighton yielded just one ace in 99 UNI serves ...Creighton's six service errors tied a season-low ...Creighton dropped to 1-15 all-time at home against UNI ...The fourth set featured 18 ties and 10 lead changes.
