Creighton University
BRADLEY
Volleyball Serves Up 12 Aces in Win Over Bradley
9/25/2010 6:53:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton had season-highs with 12 aces and .366 hitting while rolling to a 3-1 win over visiting Bradley on Saturday night at D.J. Sokol Arena. Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 25-9, 18-25, 25-10, 25-16.
Creighton improves to 8-6 on the year and remains tied for second in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 3-1 league mark. Bradley fell to 4-10 (0-4 MVC) with its seventh straight setback this month.
Creighton never trailed while routing Bradley, 25-9, in the first set. The Jays took leads of 5-0, 11-2 and 20-5 en route to a dominant victory. Creighton had six players with multiple kills, and 15 overall, while hitting .371 as a team. Bradley, on the other hand, had just five kills as a team and hit -.081 in 37 swings. Julianne Mandolfo led the CU defense with 10 digs in the first set.
Things looked promising for Creighton when Nayka Benitez started the second set with consecutive aces, only to see Bradley battle back. With the score even at 12, Caitlin Staib had a kill that would give the visitors the lead for good. The Braves pulled away late from Creighton, scoring nine of the final 12 points, including two straight aces by Madelyn Ervin to end the frame. Lauren Zerante and Megan Schmidt each had four kills to lead a Bradley squad that hit .364 in the second set. Creighton hit .172, led by four kills from Alicia Runge in the second stanza.
Just like the first set, Creighton dominated the third set with a 25-10 trouncing. Runge arried a red-hot CU offense with 10 kills in 12 swings, helping Creighton to 18 kills on .654 hitting in 26 swings.
The fourth set was equally decisive, as the Jays never trailed in a 25-16 triumph to clinch the win. Benitez served a seven point run that included four straight aces as the Jays built a 16-7 lead. Creighton's lead reached 12 on two occasions before settling for a 25-16 win. Creighton hit .303 in the fourth set with five aces and Mandolfo had 10 of her 27 digs in the final frame.
Runge led Creighton with 17 kills on career-high .615 hitting. She had just one error in 26 swings overall. Five other Bluejays had between seven and nine kills, as setter Megan Bober had her pick of options throughout the night against a Bradley front line that failed to record a block. Allie Oelke had nine kills and 14 digs, Laurel Sanford and Heather Thorson each had eight kills, while Bober and Karisa Almgren each had seven kills. Thorson led Creighton's block with four stuffs, while Benitez served up seven of the Jays 12 aces on the evening. Creighton finished with 56 kills, 12 aces, 66 digs and eight blocks while hitting .366.
Bradley was led by eight kills from Staib and 16 digs from Rachelle Dejean. BU had 37 kills, five aces, 50 digs and no blocks while hitting .122.
Creighton returns to the road next weekend, beginning with a 7 pm match at Illinois State on Friday night.
NOTES: Bradley has now lost 24 consecutive MVC matches, dating to a Nov. 15, 2008 win over Missouri State. The Braves have also dropped 25 straight road matches in Valley play, dating to a Oct. 6, 2007 victory at Indiana State ...Creighton's 12 aces doubled its previous season high and were its most since Sept. 30, 2006 ... Creighton's .366 hitting was 15th-best in school history and its best since hitting .398 last year in the D.J. Sokol Arena opener vs. Texas Tech ... The seven aces by Nayka Benitez were tied for second-most in Bluejay history, trailing only the eight by Carolyn Decker in 2004 ... Alicia Runge's .615 hitting was ninth-best in CU history (minimum 12 kills) and second-best ever by a Jays player with 25 swings or more ... Creighto head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth is now 14-1 vs. Bradley, including 10 straight wins ... Julianne Mandolfo tied her career-high with 27 digs for the second straight match ... Creighton's 25-9 margin in the first set was its largest since a 25-9 set one win over Bradley last year at D.J. Sokol Arena ... Freshman Lexi Malm made her Bluejay debut, finishing with three attack attempts and a dig ... Fellow freshmen Brianne Fliss and Natalie Hackbarth also saw their first action in a home match this season ... Heather Thorson hit a career-best .357, while her eight kills were one off her career-high.
