Volleyball Seeks First Sweet 16 on Saturday at No. 23 North Carolina

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Creighton Volleyball Notes
NCAA Tournament - Second Round
Dec. 5   4:00 pm CST   Creighton at No. 23 North Carolina   Chapel Hill, N.C. (Carmichael Arena)

- No. 16 seed Creighton Volleyball (26-8) takes on 23rd-ranked North Carolina (21-9) on Saturday at 4 pm Central in Chapel Hill, N.C., with Carmichael Arena hosting the action. The match will have links to free live stats and free live video on the volleyball schedule page of GoCreighton.com.
   The winner advances to next week's San Diego Regional semifinal, where it will take on second-ranked and No. 1 overall seed USC (32-2) next Friday. Joining the Women of Troy in San Diego are both No. 9-seed Kansas (28-2) and unranked Loyola Marymount (24-8). The Jayhawks and Lions both earned a spot in the Sweet 16 on Friday night, as well.

- Creighton is 0-2 all-time against North Carolina, with Kirsten Bernthal Booth going 0-1 against the Tar Heels. The teams met in 2001 in Santa Clara, Calif., and in 2003 in Lawrence, Kan. UNC won both matches in four sets.

- While Creighton Volleyball improved to 4-1 in NCAA Tournament First Round matches with yesterday's win, the Bluejays have never won a second-round match, going 0-3. A win on Saturday would mark CU Volleyball's first Sweet 16 in program history.

- Creighton has won 21 of its last 22 matches, a stretch that includes two of the four longest win streaks in program history. Creighton enters Saturday with an eight-match win streak.

- Creighton is 9-7 against the teams in the 2015 NCAA Tournament field, including a mark of 3-5 against teams that reached the second round of the NCAA's this fall.

- Creighton's 26 wins so far this year rank second-most in school history. Only the 2012 team that was 29-4 won more.

- Creighton will play its school-record 35th match of the season on Saturday, breaking the old mark of 34 that was set last fall in a 25-9 campaign.
   Creighton will also set a single-season record for sets played. The Bluejays enter Saturday's match with 126 sets played this fall, two shy of the mark of 128 set last fall.

- Creighton is looking to eliminate a nationally-ranked North Carolina team in Chapel Hill for the second time in eight days on Saturday. Last Saturday, Creighton's 12th-seeded men's soccer team eliminated fifth-seeded North Carolina, 1-0, on a goal from Timo Pitter. The CU soccer team is coached by former UNC head coach Elmar Bolowich, and plays at fourth-seeded Akron on Saturday with a berth in the College Cup on the line.

- Creighton enters Saturday as the nation's only school with teams still alive in both the NCAA Volleyball and NCAA Men's Soccer Tournaments. Both teams are in action on Saturday afternoon.

- When Creighton takes the court against North Carolina on Saturday, it will be facing the nation's No. 23-ranked team. Creighton is 4-61 all-time against ranked teams.
   Creighton is 0-31 all-time in true road matches against ranked teams.
   Creighton is 4-45 at all sites against ranked teams under Kirsten Bernthal Booth.
   Creighton is 1-4 this season against ranked teams, with the lone victory coming on Sept. 5 vs. No. 10 Kentucky in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
   Creighton is 1-3 against ranked teams in postseason play, topping No. 16 Iowa State in 2010.
   In 2013 in its last second-round match Creighton had its year end at the hands of No. 23 Kansas.

- In the last four years, Creighton is 102-30 with three regular-season conference titles and three conference tournament crowns. The Bluejays are 3-3 in NCAA Tournament matches in that time, and the senior class of Ashley Jansen, Melanie Jereb, Maggie Baumert, Kate Elman and Lizzy Stivers have been part of the four most victorious single-seasons in program history.

- In the rally scoring era (since 2001), No. 16 seeds have advanced to the Sweet 16 eight times in 14 tries. Additionally, at least 10-of-16 national seeds have reached the Sweet 16 in each of the last 14 seasons.
   In this year's Tournament, seeded teams are 20-1 through Friday's matches, with eighth-seeded Stanford as the only loser.

- Creighton is 0-3 all-time in true road matches in the NCAA Tournament.

- Creighton and North Carolina share three common opponents this fall. Creighton went 0-3 in matches against USC, Wisconsin and Louisville, while the Tar Heels lost to USC and Wisconsin but beat Louisville.

- Creighton hit a lofty .308 on Friday vs. Coastal Carolina. Creighton is now 69-0 under Kirsten Bernthal Booth when hitting .300 or better, and improved to 146-5 under Booth when hitting .250 or better.

- Kate Elman became the first player in Creighton history to reach 2,000 career digs on Friday with a dig on the third point of the match. Elman had 20 digs on the day and owns 2,019 in her career entering Saturday. No other player owns more than 1,400 digs in Bluejay history.

- Jaali Winters joined Leah Ratzlaff as the only Bluejays to reach 500 kills in a season with a kill on CU's first point of the second set on Friday. Winters owns 513 career kills, three shy of Creighton's single-season record of 516 set by Ratzlaff in 2003.
   Winters, who averages 4.07 kills per set, overtook Ratzlaff (4.05 kps.) on Friday as CU's career kills per set leader among players with 350 kills or more.
   Winters also had her 17th straight match of 10 or more kills on Friday, CU's third-longest streak in program history.
   Winters can also break Ratzlaff's season record for points scored with 13.5 points or more on Saturday.

- Jaali Winters' 20 kills yesterday were the most ever by a Creighton player in an NCAA Tournament match. Other single-match NCAA Tournament school-records that fell included assists (Maggie Baumert's 55), attacks (Jaali Winters' 63) and points (Jaali Winters' 21.0).

- Creighton had double-doubles from Jaali Winters, Jess Bird and Maggie Baumert on Friday. It was the 15th double-dip of the fall for Winters, the 10th for Bird and eighth for Baumert.

- Seniors Melanie Jereb, Ashley Jansen and Kate Elman became the first Bluejays to play in three NCAA Volleyball Tournament victories and in four different NCAA Tournaments.

- Lauren Smith made her 99th career start, and 87th in a row, on Friday.

Volleyball Seeks First Sweet 16 on Saturday at No. 23 North Carolina

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Players Mentioned

Maggie Baumert

Jess Bird

Kate Elman

Ashley Jansen

Melanie Jereb

Lauren Smith

Lizzy Stivers

Jaali Winters