Creighton University
WICHITA STATE
Volleyball Rally Tops Wichita State in Five Sets
10/9/2010 9:42:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- The Creighton Volleyball team won its fifth straight match and moved within a half-game of MVC leader Northern Iowa with a come-from-behind five-set win over Wichita State on Saturday night at D.J. Sokol Arena. Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 25-22, 17-25, 22-25, 25-18, 15-12.
Creighton (12-6, 7-1 MVC) has now won nine of its last 10 matches, while Wichita State dropped into fifth in the MVC standings with an 11-5 mark (4-3 MVC).
For the second straight night, Creighton had to go five sets, and once again it was up to the challenge. After an early 4-2 lead in the fifth frame, Wichita State took its only lead of the final set at 5-4 on a kill by Emily Adney and back-to-back Bluejay attack errors. Allie Oelke stemmed the Shocker rally with a kill, then served an ace. Creighton would take the lead for good a short time later at 9-7 on two straight kills by Alicia Runge. Another kill by Runge, followed by an ace from Nayka Benitez pushed CU's lead to 11-8 and forced a second WSU timeout. The Jays got to match point at 14-11 on an Oelke kill, and Megan Bober and Laurel Sanford teamed to block Adney on its second match point opportunity. Runge and Oelke each had three kills in the final set as CU hit .261.
Creighton never trailed in winning the first set, 25-22, but it wasn't without a few anxious moments. Creighton led 19-15 and appeared in control before a Shocker comeback got them within one point on three occasions, including 23-22. But kills from Sanford and Runge ended the drama. Sanford had five kills to lead CU in the opening set. Also noteworthy in the first set was the play of Oelke, who had four kills and seven digs in the while becoming the second player in Creighton history with 1,000 career digs and 1,000 career kills.
Wichita State controlled the second set, hitting .324 to pick up a 25-17 win. Creighton led 6-5 before the Shockers initiated a 9-1 run with Jackie Church and Sarah Waldorf at the service line. A kill from Camri Zwiesler gave the Shockers the second set.
Wichita State maintained that momentum out of the locker room, never trailing in the thrid set. WSU held a narrow 16-15 lead before creating a gap with six of the next seven points. A kill from Adney, her fifth of the frame, gave the Shockers the 2-1 lead in the match.
Creighton held the Shockers to -.025 hitting in the fourth set, as Heather Thorson had a hand in four blocks for the Jays. A 6-0 serving run from Bober took the Jays to the brink of set point, which it capped off when Runge and Thorson stuffed Zwiesler. That set the stage for another five-set thriller.
Oelke had 15 kills and 14 digs while becoming the second player in Bluejay history to reach 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs. She added two solo stuffs and an ace. Runge also had 15 kills, while Laurel Sanford had 10 kills and six digs. The defense was led by 25 digs from Julianne Mandolfo, while Nayka Benitez had 13 digs and served up a pair of crucial aces. In addition, Bober approached a triple-double with 47 assists, 11 digs and eight kills on .300 hitting. Creighton had 62 kills, six aces, 89 digs and 10.5 blocks while hitting .199.
Wichita State was keyed by a career-best 21 kills and 14 digs from Adney, while Arizona State transfer Zwiesler had 17 kills and 13 digs on .271 hitting. Wichita State finished with 64 kills, two aces, 80 digs and eight blocks while hitting .216.
Creighton returns to action next Saturday with a 7 pm match at Drake (17-5, 3-5 MVC).
NOTES: This was just the second time in school history that Creighton has beaten Missouri State and Wichita State on consecutive nights, the other time coming in 1997 ... Creighton is now 2-2 this season in five-set matches and 23-13 under Kirsten Bernthal Booth ... The first player in Bluejay history with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs was Melissa Walsh (1998-2001) ... The match was part of Creighton's Homecoming Weekend ... Allie Oelke and Megan Bober each had their eighth double-doubles of the season for Creighton ... Four of Kirsten Bernthal Booth's five career wins vs. Wichita State have come in five sets ... Allie Oelke's 1,000th career kill came on a first set kill that gave CU a 12-8 lead ... She is the eighth player to reach that milestone ... Creighton improved to 6-89 under Kirsten Bernthal Booth when the opponent owns a better hitting percentage than the Bluejays ... This was the second time in school history the team has won back-to-back five-set matches, withthe first occasion coming in 1997.
