Creighton University
25-9
Oregon State
20-12
Volleyball Drops NCAA Opener to Oregon State
12/5/2014 7:06:00 PM | Volleyball
Scores of the match, held at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka, Kan., were 25-21, 26-24, 19-25, 25-21.
Oregon State improves to 20-12, while Creighton finishes its season with a 25-9 record.
Oregon State won a tight first set, 25-21, The teams were tied 7-7 before OSU went on an 8-2 burst, including a 5-0 service run by Tayla Woods. CU would trail 18-13 before Maggie Baumert served a 7-0 run that featured a pair of aces and put the BIG EAST champs in front, 20-18. OSU regrouped after a timeout. Four straight kills from the Beavers gave OSU the lead for good, clinching the set on a tip from Arica Nassar. Kate Elman made her return to the libero spot and had eight digs for CU in the first set, while Maggie Baumert had eight assists and seven digs for the Jays.
The second followed a similar pattern, this time featuring 14 ties and nine lead changes. Creighton led 21-19 after a back-row kill from Katie Neisler, but OSU would score 3-of-4 points after a timeout to knot the score at 22-all. The Beavers earned a pair of set points at 24-22, only to see Jess Bird get a kill and Ashley Jansen an ace to tie things up. But Oregon State earned another set point on a kill from Amanda Brown, then won it on an ace by Mary-Kate Marshall.
The Beavers raced to a 10-6 lead in the third set, but Creighton answered to take a 13-12 lead. Once in front, the Jays never relented, extending the lead to 18-15 on a Bird kill, then 22-16 after a kill from Kelli Browning. A Katie Neisler ace closed out the 25-19 win in the third set.
Oregon State went up 7-4 in the fourth set after a pair of aces during Brown's 4-0 serving run, and the Jays never got within one the rest of the way. CU trailed by as much as 18-12, only to score three straight points to cut the gap in half. But it would be too little, too late, as OSU closed out the victory in its first NCAA Tournament match since 2001, and first postseason victory in program history.
McNary had a match-high 17 kills for CU, with Bird (15) and Browning (10) not far behind. Bird (15 digs) and Baumert (47 assists, 16 digs) finished with double-doubles, while Marysa Wilkinson led CU with four blocks. The Bluejays had 61 kills, seven aces, 96 digs and 7.5 blocks while hitting .182.
Oregon State was led by 14 kills from Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Marshall, just ahead of Brown (13) and Katelyn Driscoll (12). Woods had 44 assists and 11 digs, while Hannah Troutman led all players with 26 digs on the afternoon. OSU had 51 kills, eight aces, 92 digs and nine blocks on .192 hitting.
The match was the final one for the most victorious senior class in school history, as Browning, McNary, Neisler and Michelle Sicner combined to win 94 matches with two regular-season conference titles and two conference tournament titles, as well as two NCAA Tournament victories to their credit.
Oregon State advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where it will meet Arkansas-Little Rock. The Trojans defeated No. 16 seed Kansas in five sets.
NOTES: Creighton fell to 3-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament appearances, including a 3-1 record in the first round ... Kate Elman made her return to the libero jersey for the first time since breaking her forearm on Oct. 24. She served as CU's libero the first two sets before giving way to Melanie Jereb. Elman had 13 digs while Jereb finished with 12 digs on the day ... Creighton's 25 wins are its second-most in school history for one year, trailing only the 29 in 2012 ... Jess Bird had her eighth straight match of double-figure kills ... Creighton's 128 sets played and 34 matches played in 2014 is a school record ... Melanie Jereb had her 12th straight match with 10 or more digs ... Kelli Browning had three blocks and finished with 602 in her career, the second Bluejay in school history to surpass 600 or more ... Maggie Baumert's double-double was her ninth of the fall, while Jess Bird's was her eighth.
Postgame Quotes
Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth
On Elman's play throughout the night:
“I thought Kate did a good job. She's been out for six weeks, and I didn't think she did a poor job. It wasn't that Kate did a poor job that we made the switch, we thought maybe some rhythm change would be good for the team, and Mel had been in that role for the last five weeks because of Kate's injury. So that was the reason behind that, but I thought Kate did a good job.”
On being down 2-1 going into the fourth set:
“I knew they would fight. I thought they finally got into an offensive rhythm in the third game, so that was good to see. I knew that Oregon State wouldn't roll over. They've obviously been a team that's been in tough situations and continue to battle. We talked about after game three our offensive rhythm and really starting to connect, but unfortunately we weren't able to take that momentum into the fourth game.”
Creighton senior OH Jess Bird
On the size of OSU:
“They're a big team. They are tall and we're more of a jumping group. We made a lot of uncharacteristic plays.”
On the mood of the locker room after the game:
“We have four incredible seniors and we are going to miss them, and that was our main focus. We were bummed that we lost but we are going to miss the seniors out of this whole thing.”
Creighton senior OH Leah McNary
On the size of OSU:
“I agree, I think we made a lot of uncharacteristic plays but I do think after the second game we came back and gave them a fight and more of them team that we play as.
On what was said during the timeout the third set that turned things around:
“I think it was to stay focused on our side. We kept saying that we needed just one run to get back into it. Our team is a fighting team and we were not just going to role over and I think it showed, even though we lost. The thing for us was to keep fighting and show how our team has been the whole season.
Oregon State head coach Taras Liskevych
Opening Statement:
“First off I want to tip my hat to Creighton. Very good team and they kept fighting every time we got a distance of six or seven points. They kept fighting back. They were a tough team, they really got their mo-jo going in the second set by hitting some good shots against us. The key was to get our resiliency. We were resilient all year and we were also very centered around our blocking and serving, which came to the table today with the eight aces and the 19 blocks. I can't say enough about our leadership, our captains really personified that all year. This is a great day for the Beavers, this was our first NCAA tournament win ever, for Oregon State.
On the first tournament win in program history:
“We hope its not the last one this year. So we've worked really hard. Especially these two (Arica and Tayla). They said at the beginning of the year that as seniors, they were going to turn the program around. I think it was really on their backs that it happened. We had Driscoll coming back from injury and Marshall really had a great year as a freshman and had an uncharacteristically off match today. But that's good if we can win with Marshall not playing her best.
On how much you know about your next opponents
We don't know much about Arkansas-Little Rock, but we do know about Kansas. They're a well-coached team, they've played very well this year and in years past. Ray's a good friend of mine. He's done a great job with that program an we knew going into this regional that these teams are experienced NCAA teams. They've been here before. Creighton, this is the programs third straight year they've been here and four of the last five. That's a big difference. We wanted to keep our players loose on that, and that mentality will carry into tomorrow. The sign of very good teams is winning matches you don't play your best and I think we showed that today. We didn't play our best and we were far from it. Either team we play tomorrow are good teams and I look forward to playing either one of them.
On transformation of the program
They've done a great job, It was on their shoulders. It's always difficult to build a program into the position we're in being in the Pac-12. I don't think people realize how great the Pac-12 is in Volleyball. You don't take a rest no matter whom you're playing. There are great teams in the Big East, but there are teams in the Big East whom you can rest against and win. You can't do that in the Pac-12. That's the beauty of that conference, yet sometimes it's the negative because you're playing hard every time and do you get ample rest and do you really build your team because you're not playing everybody else. And that's a big difference and I think it's prepared us, but at the same time we know how good all of these teams are because they're in the NCAA.
Senior MB Arica Nassar
On what prepared you the most for this stage:
The Pac-12. The Pac-12 is definitely is great at preparing a team for the NCAA tournament and were going to see Pac-12 teams the farther we go, we know its to come. Our conference definitely prepares us for that.
Senior S Tayla Woods
On taking your team to its first NCAA tournament win
Its definitely great. We've worked so hard and to have it finally turn around its awesome. Our team is all about not being content, pushing for greatness. That's what we're going to continue to do.
