Creighton University
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
Volleyball Sweeps South Dakota State
9/22/2009 6:45:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Sarah Schulze had season-bests with nine kills and four blocks to lead a balanced Creighton attack in a 3-0 victory over visiting South Dakota State on Tuesday. Scores of the match in favor of the Bluejays were 25-21, 25-21, 25-18.
Creighton is now 4-8 with its second win in five days, while the Jackrabbits fell to 3-8 with their third consecutive setback.
"Sarah (Schulze) had a great spring," said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "What Sarah brings is leadership and great, great ball control. It was great to see her have such a great offensive night. She was sick yesterday and she didn't practice, so we weren't even sure if she was going to be able to go today. For her to come out and hit .400 on the night, we'll take that every night."
Creighton and SDSU slugged through seven ties, the last one at 10-10, before the Jays would take the first set lead for good. An SDSU attack error started a 4-0 run with Allie Oelke at the service line, and Brooke Boggs would serve five more in a row a short time later as CU extended its lead to 20-13. A kill from Alicia Runge would end a first set that saw CU hit .389 and produce 17 kills as well as 17 digs.
Creighton opened up a 6-0 lead to start the second set and would lead by as much as 10-2, only to see SDSU attempt a valiant comeback. Creighton's lead would be cut to one point on two different occasions before CU pulled away late for the 25-21 win, again ending it on a Runge kill.
SDSU took its only leads of the match early in the third set, going ahead for the final time at 8-7, before Jessica Houts served an ace as part of a 4-0 run. The Bluejay lead would eventually reach as large as 21-13 and end at 25-18 when South Dakota native Caitlin Templeton slammed an overpass for a kill.
Five players had six or more kills for Creighton, with Schulze and Alicia Runge leading the team with nine each. Schulze, who also hit .400, added eight digs and four blocks in her best offensive outing since her sophomore season. Creighton had 43 kills, four aces, 48 digs and 11 blocks as part of a .227 hitting night.
SDSU was led by a match-best 12 kills from Ellyce Youngren, who had 12 kills and hit .391. Youngren also was involved in all three of the Jackrabbits blocks on the night. The Jacks finished with 34 kills, three aces, 54 digs and three blocks while hitting .096.
Creighton returns to action on Friday at Indiana State in a 5 pm Central match.
NOTES: The kill to end the match was Caitlin Templeton's first of her career ...SDSU kill leader Kelli Fiegen (3.23 kps.) was not among the 12 players to appear for the Jacks ...Nayka Benitez led the CU defense with 15 digs, her 12th straight match leading the team in that category ...Benitez also served up three of her team's four aces ...SDSU dropped to 1-8 away from home this fall ...Creighton leads the all-time series 2-1 ...Sarah Schulze entered the night with four blocks in the first 41 sets of the season before four tonight, though she had spent most of the year playing only in the back row.
