Creighton University
INDIANA STATE (Breast Cancer Awareness Night)
Volleyball Tops Sycamores on Breast Cancer Awareness Night
10/29/2010 8:57:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Nayka Benitez served six aces to help Creighton to a 3-0 sweep of Indiana State in volleyball action from D.J. Sokol Arena on Friday evening. Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 25-21, 25-16, 25-18.
Creighton improves to 14-8 on the year and is in a two-way tie with Wichita State for second place in the Missouri Valley Conference at 9-3 in league play. Indiana State dropped to 9-16 on the year and stands at 1-11 in MVC action (ninth place).
Creighton scored the first four points of the match off the serve of Brooke Boggs and did not trail in set one. The Jays used a balanced attack, with five players registering multiple kills, hitting .314 in the set triumph.
Indiana State raced to a 3-0 advantage and led by as much 5-1 early on. Benitez helped Creighton rally with four straight points, including an ace that gave CU an 8-7 lead and prompted a Sycamore timeout. The Jays would not trail again in the set, later using a 4-0 serving spurt by Megan Bober to go ahead 19-13. Creighton would clinch the set on an ace by Boggs, CU's fifth service winner of the second set.
In the third set Creighton broke free from a tense 10-9 lead with a 4-0 run that included two blistering aces from Benitez. The Jays had seven blocks in the third set alone, including five from sophomore middle blocker Heather Thorson.
Creighton was paced by 10 kills from Alicia Runge on .348 hitting, while Julianne Mandolfo topped the defense with 15 digs. Thorson had seven blocks, matching her career-high. The Bluejays finished the match with 32 kills, 41 digs, nine aces, 12.0 blocks and hit .253 as a club.
Morgan Dall led Indiana State with 11 kills, but also committed nine of her team's 24 attack errors. Dall hit just .057 in 35 swings. ISU finished with 34 kills, 50 digs, three aces and two blocks while hitting .096 as a team.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday night with a 7:30 pm match against Illinois State. A costume contest will be held at intermission of the match, and fans are encouraged to dress in Halloween attire.
NOTES: Creighton wore pink jerseys and the perimeter of the court was lined with pink tape as part of its annual Breast Cancer Awareness Night ... Creighton's 26 wins against Indiana State are its most against any opponents ... Creighton is now 8-1 in Friday night matches this fall ... The team to win the first set has won each of the last 14 meetings in the series between Indiana State and Creighton ... With her six aces tonight, Nayka Benitez leads the MVC with 23 aces in league action ... Creighton has won 12 straight meetings vs. Indiana State, including the 11 sweeps in that span ... Creighton has won 21 straight sets at home against Indiana State, with 17 of those set victories coming by eight points or more ... Julianne Mandolfo had 15 digs and now owns the Creighton record for freshmen with 355 digs this season, 14 more than Allie Oelke's 341 in 2007 ... Allie Oelke moved into fourth place in Creighton history on the career dig list. She had five digs and now has 1,225 in her career, moving her past Melissa Weisensee (1994-97), who had 1,223.
