Creighton University
3-1
Northern Iowa
2-3
Dramatic Rally Leads Volleyball Past UNI in Five Sets
9/5/2014 7:14:00 PM | Volleyball
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Trailing 0-2 and without two starters, the Creighton Volleyball team rallied for a stirring five-set win over former MVC rival Northern Iowa at the Commonwealth Classic in Lexington, Ky., on Friday evening.
Scores of the match were 15-25, 23-25, 25-16, 25-22, 15-5.
Creighton improves to 3-1 on the year, while UNI is now 2-3 with its second loss of the day.
UNI led from start to finish in the first set. Kinsey Caldwell served the Panthers to a 4-0 lead and CU never regrouped, fallling behind 10-3 and 19-10 before ultimately dropping a 25-15 set. The Panthers hit .296 in the set, led by three kills in four swings by both Lindsey Schulz and Kayla Haneline. Creighton had eight attack errors and three service miscues in the first set and was also held without a block.
After falling behind 11-6 to open the second set, Creighton would string together an 11-3 run to build a 17-14 lead. The Bluejays appeared in control with a 21-19 lead after a kill by freshman Marysa Wilkinson, only to see UNI claw back. The Panthers scored the next five points to earn three set points. Melanie Jereb had consecutive kills to hold off UNI, but Eryca Hingtgen closed out the set with a kill to give UNI a 25-23 win and 2-0 set lead in the match. Jereb had five kills for CU in the second set, but the set was decided at the service line. UNI had three aces without an error in the second set, while CU had four errors without an ace.
Creighton never trailed in the second set, as Kelli Browning had a kill and a block on the first two points and the Bluejays never looked back. UNI tried to limit the damage, calling timeouts at 6-2 and 12-5, but the Bluejays allowed just three points on UNI's serve and CU would pull away. Creighton hit .371 in the frame to UNI's .121, paced by six kills in seven swings by Browning.
Just like the third set, Creighton never trailed in a lopsided fourth set win either. CU surged to a 7-3 lead that it later extended to 12-4 and 17-8. Creighton's lead was as large as 19-9, but UNI trimmed the margin to four after six straight points. CU did just enough to hang on after UNI saved two set points to get within two, winning 25-22 on a kill by McNary. McNary and Lauren Smith both had five kills for CU in the fourth set, while Wilkinson had three blocks to lead CU's front line.
UNI won the first point of the fifth set before Jereb served a 10-0 Bluejay run that forced Panther coach Bobbi Petersen to burn both timeouts. Creighton would sideout after each UNI point, closing out a 15-5 victory on a Smith kill.
McNary became the first Bluejay since 2012 to finish with 20 kills in a match, doing so on .351 hitting. Celebrating her 21st birthday, Browning had season-highs with 15 kills and nine blocks while hitting .560, a CU record for a five-set match. Kate Elman led CU's defense with 24 digs, while Baumert had career-bets with 54 assists and seven kills and Jereb a double-double with 11 kills and 12 digs. Creghton had 68 kills, three aces, 67 digs and 12.0 blocks while hitting .293.
UNI was led by 12 kills and 11 digs from Hingten, while Haneline had 10 kills on .280 hitting. Amie Held toppped all players wiht 25 digs, while Caldwell had 39 assists. UNI had 53 kills, five aces, 69 digs and eight blocks on .162 hitting.
Creighton returns to action with a pair of matches against ranked foes. The Bluejays meet No. 6 USC at 10 am Central before a 6:30 pm Central contest against tournament host and No. 16 Kentucky.
NOTES: UNI had been 0-4 in the first set this season prior to its 25-15 win ...UNI lost in four sets to No. 16 Kentucky on Friday morning in the first match of the Commonwealth Classic ... Kate Elman has her 27th straight match with 10+ digs, tied for 3rd-longest in CU history. Her 65 matches with 10+ digs are also tied for third in CU history. Elman's 27th career match with 20 or more digs is tied for second-most in CU history ... Kelli Browning moved into third in Creighton history in career blocks ... Freshman Marysa Wilkinson made her first career start, finishing with five kills and five blocks ... Creighton was without starters Michelle Sicner and Jess Bird ... Melanie Jereb had her ninth career double-double, and first of 2014 ... Kenzie Crawford's first career kill gave CU a 3-1 lead in the fifth set ...Creighton improved to 37-19 under Booth in five-set matches, 4-2 vs. UNI ... Creighton improved to 6-78 under Booth and 8-176 all-time in matches it has trailed 0-2 ... Creighton has won three straight matches against UNI for the first time ever, improving to 6-40 all-time in the series ... The match featured just three lead changes and six ties.
