Creighton University
Kansas State
Volleyball Falls in Five at Kansas State
8/30/2011 8:51:00 PM | Volleyball
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Creighton's third straight Big 12 road match didn't lack for dramatics, but it was host Kansas State that scored the final four points to claim a 15-13 fifth set victory before 2,983 fans at Ahearn Field House.
Scores of the match in favor of the Wildcats were 21-25, 25-16, 25-23, 17-25, 15-13.
"I think we did a lot of very good things tonight but were erratic, which can be a sign of youth and inexperience," said Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "We're going to get better as we play more."
Creighton (1-3) featured a balanced offensive attack, with six players finishing between 6-9 kills. Megan Bober led that brigade with nine kills, while also adding 28 assists and eight digs. Julianne Mandolfo had a match-high 32 digs on the evening for the Jays, one off her career-high.
Creighton won a closely contested first set that featured seven ties and two lead changes. Creighton gave up three points to fall behind 6-4 and not regain the lead until a four-point run gave the Jays a 15-13 edge. K-State would tie the match three different times, including 20-all. But two K-State service errors and an attack error got Creighton to set point, where Karisa Almgren redirected an overpass that found the floor. Almgren had a team-best three kills in the first set.
Kansas State (2-2) turned around the match with a momentous 16-3 run to end the second set to win, 25-16. Creighton seemed in good shape, going ahead 13-9, before things fell apart. Kathleen Ludwig served a 6-0 run that included a pair of aces and two other kills off a CU overpass. Creighton got a sideout from Heather Thorson to thwart the run, but another 5-0 run followed with three more kills off an overpass with some uncharacteristically poor passing from the Jays defense. K-State closed out the set with a stuff of Laurel Sanford to knot the match heading to intermission.
Kansas State pulled out a narrow 25-23 victory in the third set, which featured six more ties. With the set tied at 22-all late, the Wildcats blocked Karisa Almgren to take the lead and went ahead 24-22 on a Dakota Kaufman kill off an overpass. Kansas State had a serving error to give Creighton a break, but Caitlyn Donahue won a joust at the net for her first kill of the match to help the Wildcats to the set victory.
Creighton won the fourth set by a decisive 25-17 margin, putting together a 6-0 run with Megan Bober serving to take an 11-5 lead and never looking back. Creighton hit .233 in the set and added three blocks to help limit the K-State attack.
The fifth set featured five ties and a pair of lead changes. Creighton led 8-7 when the teams switched sides and were up 11-8 and 13-11 late. However the Wildcats ran off a four-point run to end the match. Pelger and Donahue combined to block Almgren, and Sanford's ball missed the right sideline to tie the score. Donahue had a rare kill to get KSU to 14-13, and a bad pass on match point by Creighton led to the Wildcats victory.
Pelger, a preseason all-Big 12 pick, had a career-high 24 kills in 58 swings from the middle. She also added 13 digs and nine blocks. Lilla Porubek also stood out for KSU, finishing with 15 kills in 43 swings. KSU hit .164 with 62 kills, three aces, 76 digs and 12 blocks.
Creighton was paced by nine kills from Bober. Mandolfo had 32 digs to lead the defense, while sophomore Natalie Hackbarth had a career-best 12. Creighton finished with 46 kills, four aces, 71 digs and 12 blocks while hitting .121.
Creighton returns home on Friday to host the Bluejay Invitational. Marquette plays South Dakota at 4:30 pm before Creighton hosts preseason MAC favorite Northern Illinois at 7 pm.
"We're excited to play on our home court. it's such a phenomenal venue," said Booth. "Northern Illinois is very, very good, so we've got to be ready to go. We also have two tough ones on Saturday. There's not much time to rebound, which can be a good thing after a tough loss."
