Creighton University
Illinois State
Volleyball Drops Five-Setter at Illinois State
9/26/2009 4:30:00 PM | Volleyball
NORMAL, Ill. -- Creighton saw its seven-match winning streak over Illinois State snapped with a five-set loss at Redbird Arena on Saturday afternoon. Illinois State won the match by scores of 25-19, 19-25, 20-25, 25-18, 15-7 for their first win over CU since October 21, 2005.
The Redbirds improve to 6-9 (1-3 MVC), while Creighton had its two-match win streak end and is now 5-9 (2-2 MVC).
Creighton had won 13 straight MVC road matches to go five sets (including last night at Indiana State), a streak that started in 2000, and hadn't fallen in such a match since Nov. 12, 1999 at Evansville.
The first two sets saw the squads split a pair of 25-19 games, with ISU winning the first one before CU evened the score.
Creighton won the usually pivotal third set by a 25-20 score, using a 6-1 run to finish the set after the score had been knotted at 19. A setter dump by redshirt freshman Megan Bober gave CU the 2-1 lead in the match.
Creighton would never lead in the fourth set, falling behind 4-0 and 10-2 early on. The Jays did get within 18-15 but could not come any closer, as ISU forced the fifth set on a Bluejay attack error. Illinois State got seven kills from Angela Rego and five more from Mallory Leggett as part of a set that saw its team hit .343.
Illinois State led the fifth set from start to finish to seal the comeback victory. The 'Birds quickly went ahead 4-1 and 7-2. CU would rally to close within 10-6, only to surrender the next four points and face an insurmountable task. Kaite Seyller and Leggett teamed to block Jessica Houts on match point, the fourth block of the final set for ISU. Creighton hit -.118 in the final set compared to ISU's .231 hitting efficiency.
Alicia Runge led Creighton with 15 kills, with Allie Oelke not far behind with 13 kills, 12 digs and a career-high six blocks. Nayka Benitez led the Bluejay defense with 30 digs and tied for team-high honors with two aces. Cerighton finished with 55 kills, six aces, 77 digs and nine blocks while hitting .149.
Leggett topped the Redbirds with 19 kills and 10 digs in 56 swings while adding two aces. Rego had 14 kills while hitting .371 and Tabitha Visk chipped in with a dozen kills, nine digs and six blocks. The Redbirds finished with 55 kills, five aces, 69 digs and 15.5 blocks while hitting .205. In the process, the Redbirds became the first team all season to outblock Creighton in a match.
Creighton returns to action next Friday when it hosts No. 20 Wichita State. First serve at the Ryan Athletic Center is scheduled for 7 pm.
NOTES: Nayka Benitez had a career high with 30 digs, six more than the 24 she had at Dayton and ninth-most in CU history for single match ...Benitez is just the fifth individual in CU history with 30 or more digs in a match ...Allie Oelke had her second double-double of the season and 18th of her career, finishing with 13 kills and 12 digs, as well as a career-best six blocks ...Creighton has never swept Illinois State in 34 all-time meetings ...Sarah Schulze had a season-best 19 digs.
