Creighton University
3-4
Lipscomb
5-2
Volleyball Blasts Lipscomb to Open Bluejay Invitational
9/11/2015 8:25:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. - Behind a dominant performance from senior Maggie Baumert and junior Lauren Smith the Creighton women's volleyball team coasted by Lipscomb in straight sets (25-19, 25-8, 25-18) on the opening day of the Bluejay Invitational on Friday, Sept. 11.
The win lifted the Bluejays to 3-4 on the season, while Lipscomb fell to 5-2.
Jaali Winters led Creighton's offense with 10 kills on the day, but Baumert spread her 32 assists between seven teammates as CU hit a robust .341 for the day. Kate Elman paced CU's defense with 10 digs, while Melanie Jereb tied her career-best with three aces.
Creighton finished with 40 kills, seven aces, 41 digs and nine blocks on .341 hitting, while Lipscomb had 26 kills, three aces, 30 digs and three blocks on .062 hitting.
The Lady Bisons were paced by seven kills from 2013 Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year Jewell Dobson's seven kills and 11 digs by Brittany Thomas.
The Bluejays never trailed in the first two sets while racing to a 2-0 lead in the match.
Jereb had aces on her first two serves to help CU to a 4-1 lead in the first set and later served a three straight points to get CU to 24-18. Winters had five kills on .375 hitting to lead CU to the win in the opener.
Creighton got rolling in the second set and could not be stopped by Lipscomb, an NCAA at-large team from a year ago. CU scored six straight points without the aid of a kill to build a 7-1 advantage and force a timeout. Later Ashley Jansen's 8-0 run capped off the 25-8 triumph. Creighton hit .467 in the set while holding Lipscomb to -.261.
Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year Jess Bird had four kills and five digs after intermission to help CU secure the sweep. Bird served a six-point run as CU's lead stretched to 20-8. Brittany Lawrence capped off her first home contest with a kill on match point to end it in a tidy 79 minutes.
Creighton will wrap up the Bluejay Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 12 with matches against CSU Bakersfield (12:00 pm) and Pacific (7:30 pm). Pacific swept CSU Bakersfield in the first match of the day by a 25-11, 29-27, 25-18 margin.
NOTES: Both Creighton and Lipscomb entered the match with five points in this week's AVCA Top 25 poll ... After a 5-0 start, Lipscomb has lost six straight sets ... After a 1-4 start, Creighton has won six straight sets ... Samantha Bohnet and Taryn Kloth both saw their first action as Bluejays. Kloth had two kills in as many swings and added a block, while Bohnet came in to serve late in the third set ... Creighton won its fourth straight home-opener, and is now 10-3 under Kirsten Bernthal Booth in those contests ... Creighton improved to 8-0 all-time when Marysa Wilkinson hits .400 or better ... Creighton has won 80 straight matches in which it has led 2-0 at intermission ... Tonight's win was the 350th of Kirsten Bernthal Booth's career. That includes 112 victories at Kirkwood and 238 at Creighton ... Creighton honored its 2014 BIG EAST championship team prior to the match.
