Creighton University
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Kansas
Kansas Tops Volleyball In Jayhawk Classic Finale
9/5/2009 1:45:00 PM | Volleyball
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Bluejay sophomore Laurel Sanford had career-highs with nine kills and seven blocks, but it wasn't enough as the Kansas volleyball team defeated Creighton in four sets on Saturday afternoon in Lawrence, Kan. Scores of the match were 26-24, 28-30, 25-21, 25-17, which was played in front of a sellout crowd of 1,300 at the Horjesi Family Athletics Center on the campus of the University of Kansas.
Creighton dropped to 1-5 with its fifth straight defeat, matching its longest losing streak since 2003. Kansas improved to 4-2 after its second consecutive 2-1 weekend.
Creighton couldn't take advantage of three set points while dropping a heart-breaking 26-24 decision to open the match. Creighton gave up four early aces to fall behind 9-5 before an 8-0 run with Alicia Runge serving gave CU a 13-9 lead. Creighton maintained the lead, going ahead 24-21 to earn three set points. The Jayhawks stunned Creighton with a 5-0 run to steal the first game. A kill by Karina Garlington and two kills from Allison Mayfield evened the score at 24. KU then got a kill from Paige Mazour to reach its set point, which they won when Creighton was unable to make an effective set off a KU attack.
Both teams had strong chances to win the second set before CU outlasted the Jayhawks to win a 30-28 marathon. Creighton played most of the set from behind and got a Jessica Houts kill to hold off KU's first chance at 24-23. A second KU opportunity was thwarted on a Garlington attack error. CU then had set points of its own at 26-25, 27-26 and 28-27, only to give away those chances with some serving and attack miscues. Tied at 28, Creighton won the set when KU committed back-to-back ball handling errors, the second one after KU was unable to handle an Allie Oelke attack.
Kansas claimed a 2-1 set lead with a 25-21 victory in the third set. The Jays fell behind 9-4 early and despite a rally to knot the score at 15, would never lead in the set. KU's lead was just 20-19 before a CU service error, and attack error doomed their way towards defeat.
Creighton owned a brief 4-1 lead early in the fourth set, only to surrender six straight points and lose hold of the lead for good. The Jayhawks steadily pulled away en route to the 3-1 victory.
Jessica Houts had 13 kills to lead the CU offense, while Sanford and Oelke each added nine kills. Sanford had a squad-best seven blocks while Houts had six stuffs. The defense was paced by Nayka Benitez, who owned a match-best 17 digs. Creighton had 46 kills, one ace, 50 digs and 13 blocks while hitting just .157.
Kansas got 19 kills from Mayfield and 15 kills each from Garlington and Mazour. Melissa Manda had 16 digs to top the KU defense. Kansas had 60 kills, six aces, 64 digs and five blocks while hitting .170.
Creighton returns to action next weekend at the Dayton Flyer Invitational, starting with a match against Samford on Friday at 3:30 pm.
NOTES: Florida International won the tournament with a perfect 3-0 record. All nine sets they won in the tournament were by three points or less ...All-Tournament team selections included Creighton's Jessica Houts, Lipscomb's Alex Kelly, Kansas teammates Paige Mazour and Melissa Manda and the Florida International trio of Isadora Rangel, Olga Vergun and Tournament MVP Natalia Valentin.
