Creighton University
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Senior Day)
Volleyball Tops SIU On Senior Night To Claim Third in MVC
11/20/2010 9:07:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton won its school-record eighth straight home match, closing the regular-season with a 3-1 win over Southern Illinois on Saturday night. Scores of the contest in favor of CU were 28-26, 25-13, 26-28, 25-15.
Creighton ends the regular-season with an 18-10 mark. The Jays also finished alone in third place of the Missouri Valley Conference with a 13-5 league mark, moving ahead of Missouri State after the Bears lost at home to nationally-ranked league champ Northern Iowa. Southern Illinois closed its season 14-14 overall and 5-13 in Valley play.
Creighton won the first set, 28-26, surviving a late 23-19 deficit. With her team's back against the wall, Creighton's Laurel Sanford had a kill to make it 23-20, then served the next three winners to even the match. Jasmine Conner put down a kill to give the Salukis a 24-23 set point, but the Jays answered with a kill from Megan Bober to tie the score. The teams traded sideouts until a kill by Sanford handed the Jays the 28-26 win. Sanford had seven kills in eight swings during the first set, while Nayka Benitez led CU's defense with eight of its 26 digs.
Creighton blitzed the Salukis to the tune of an 8-0 lead to start the second set and the result was never in doubt. Sanford had five more kills to lead a Bluejay attack that hit .448 in 29 swings.
SIU started quickly in the third set, going ahead 8-2 and forcing a Bluejay timeout. CU steadily mounted a comeback, knotting the score at 16-all after five straight points on Allie Oelke's serve. SIU would break away to go ahead 21-17, only to see CU answer back and serve for the match with a 24-23 lead. However, SIU answered a timeout with a kill from Alicia Johnson to tie the score. Creighton would survive two set points for the Salukis before finally succumbing, 28-26, when Alysia Mayes and Rachael Brown teamed up for a block. Sanford and Runge each had six kills in the set for CU, while Oelke had 11 of CU's 31 digs in the frame.
The fourth set was won by Creighton by a 25-15 score. CU led just 15-12 before pulling away down the stretch. Fittingly it was Benitez, a senior, that served the final point on Senior Night. Creighton hit .407 in the final set, including five kills on seven swings by Runge.
Statistically, Sanford led Creighton with a career-best 20 kills while also tying for the team-lead with four blocks. Runge overcame a slow start to finish with 17 kills. Heather Thorson tied her career-high with nine kills, while Oelke had nine kills and 18 digs in her final home appearance. Megan Bober had 49 assists, seven kills, five digs and four blocks while Benitez paced the defense with 22 digs. Creighton had 69 kills, two aces, 80 digs and 10.5 blocks, hitting .282 as a squad.
SIU was paced by 14 kills and 17 digs by Johnson, while Jennifer Berwanger closed her career with 10 kills and 10 digs for yet another double-double. The Salukis finished with 47 kills, five aces, 64 digs and eight blocks while hitting .126.
Third-seeded Creighton will open play in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Thursday against sixth-seeded Drake in a rematch of last year's Thanksgiving Day match-up won by Creighton 3-0. First serve will be at 6 pm at the McLeod Center, with the winner taking on second-seeded Wichita State on Friday at 5 pm in the semifinals. Saturday's championship match will start at 3:37 pm.
NOTES: Creighton honored manager Kevin Gebhardt and student-athletes Allie Oelke, Lauren Bloemke, Alicia Runge and Nayka Benitez prior to the match as part of Senior Day festivities ... Lauren Bloemke, who hadn't played since Sept. 19, 2009 due to a pair of ACL (knee) injuries, served the first two points of the match ... Kirsten Bernthal Booth improved to 17-0 against Southern Illinois in her career ... Creighton's 17 straight wins over SIU is its longest win streak against any opponent in program history ... Creighton is now 26-9 all-time against Southern Illinois, tying it for its most wins vs. any foe (Indiana State) ... Creighton and Southern Illinois have split the season series just once in 17 years of home-and-home meetings ... This was Creighton's eighth straight home win, setting a school record and breaking the mark of seven from Oct. 17, 2008 - Aug. 28, 2009 ... Creighton honored senior Nayka Benitez by playing the national anthem of Puerto Rico, "La Borinquena", prior to the match. Benitez hails from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
