Saturday, November 18
Washington, D.C.
5:00 PM
Creighton University
3
at
2
Georgetown
Creighton won a fourth straight outright BIG EAST title on Saturday.
Photo by: Rob Anderson
Volleyball Claims Outright BIG EAST Title With Rally at Georgetown
11/18/2017 7:10:00 PM | Volleyball
Jays have won four straight league titles
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The No. 13 Creighton Volleyball team earned its fourth straight outright BIG EAST regular-season title with a 3-2 win at Georgetown on Saturday night at McDonough Arena in Washington, D.C. The Jays had to rally from a 7-2 deficit in the fifth set to do so, prevailing 15-13 on an ace from freshman Alexa Roumeliotis on match point.
Creighton is the first team since Notre Dame to win four straight outright BIG EAST titles, with the Fighting Irish having done so from 1999-2002. It is CU's fifth league title in the last six seasons, when you factor in its 2012 Missouri Valley Conference title. In four of those championship seasons (2012, 2015, 2016, 2017), Creighton won its final match of the regular-season in five sets.
"For us, particularly our seniors, to win four BIG EAST championships is pretty amazing, and to do it in the fashion that we did tonight in some respects makes us appreciate it a little bit more," said Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "I thought Georgetown played a phenomenal match and it clearly could have gone either way."
Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 22-25, 25-15, 23-25, 25-21 and 15-13.
Creighton closes the regular-season with a 23-6 record and 16-2 mark in BIG EAST Conference action, one game better than runner-up Marquette. Georgetown ends its season with a 8-22 record, 2-16 in league play.
Georgetown came to play early, using an 8-1 run to move ahead 14-7. The margin grew to 21-11 before CU pushed back. Three straight aces by junior Taryn Kloth narrowed the gap to 21-18 as the Hoyas called their second timeout. CU drew within one point at 22-21 and 23-22, but could get no closer before an ace from Kenzie Higareda closed out the set with a 25-22 win. Symone Speech had seven kills in nine swings as GU hit .421 in the set. CU's offense never got untracked, hitting just .226 with 10 kills.
Creighton fell behind early in the second set, only to close the set on a 13-3 run to take a 25-15 decision and even the match. Three straight blocks of Alyssa Sinnette by Lydia Dimke and Megan Ballenger helped fuel the spurt, which came on Brittany Witt's serve. CU had six blocks in the second set alone.
Creighton lost the third set 25-23 before answering with a fourth set victory. CU called timeout with a 22-21 lead and got three consecutive kills by Wilkinson to take the set and force the fifth frame.
Georgetown scored the first three points of the set, leading to a quick Bluejay timeout. CU would trail 5-0 and 7-2 before drawing within 7-4. The Hoyas led 8-5 when the teams switched sides. CU drew within one at 8-7 on a kill by Kloth, only to have GU return the margin to two with a block. Consecutive kills by Kloth gave CU its first kill of the fifth set at 11-10, and CU scored the final three points on kills from Kloth and Winters before a title-clinching ace by Roumeliotis. Kloth had five of her 14 kills on the night in the final frame after CU fell behind 8-6.
"Taryn had some great swings in the fifth set," said Booth. "We dug ourselves in such a big hole that to stay composed and figure out a way to win was pretty impressive."
Dimke notched her third double-double in the last two weeks with 57 assists and 11 digs, while Winters posted her third straight double-double with 16 kills and 10 digs. Wilkinson had 13 kills and Ballenger added a dozen kills to go with a career-high eight blocks. Brittany Witt paced the defense with 25 digs, and both Roumeliotis and Kloth notched three aces. Creighton had 67 kills, nine aces, 66 digs and 14 blocks on .308 hitting.
Speech led Georgetown with 25 kills on .353 hitting. Alyssa Sinnette tallied 15 kills and Higareda owned a match-high 28 digs. The Hoyas hit .252 and finished with 64 kills, seven aces, 62 digs and three blocks.
Creighton will open play at the BIG EAST Championship, presented by Jeep, next Friday at 12:30 p.m. against fourth-seeded Villanova. The match will take place in Milwaukee, Wis., and be broadcast by BEDN. The teams split a pair of regular-season meetings, with CU winning in four sets in Omaha before 'Nova swept the Bluejays last night in Pennsylvania.
"We're excited for the BIG EAST Tournament. This is why you work from January on, for Tournament season, and we're excited to another opportunity play a very good Villanova team that is playing for their life again on Friday. We know that they will play great again and we're going to need to step up things on our side of the court to be successful."
Tournament host Marquette earned the second seed and will meet third-seeded Butler in the 2:30 p.m. semifinal.
NOTES: Creighton improved to 3-1 this season in five-set matches, and 51-27 all-time under Kirsten Bernthal Booth in the fifth frame .. Creighton is now 79-9 in regular-season BIG EAST play all-time ... Creighton has won 105 straight matches (including all 98 under Kirsten Bernthal Booth) when hitting .300 or better ... Creighton has won 23 or more matches each of the last six seasons ... Creighton improved to 10-0 all-time against Georgetown ... Creighton is 8-0 all-time as a No. 1 seed in conference tournament action, with four titles ... Marysa Wilkinson (1,137) passed Allie Oelke (1,126) for ninth place on Creighton's all-time kills list ... Wilkinson also moved into second in Creighton's career sets played list with 483, trailing only Lauren Smith (511) ... The victory was the 104th win in the last four seasons, tied for most of any senior class in program history.
Creighton is the first team since Notre Dame to win four straight outright BIG EAST titles, with the Fighting Irish having done so from 1999-2002. It is CU's fifth league title in the last six seasons, when you factor in its 2012 Missouri Valley Conference title. In four of those championship seasons (2012, 2015, 2016, 2017), Creighton won its final match of the regular-season in five sets.
"For us, particularly our seniors, to win four BIG EAST championships is pretty amazing, and to do it in the fashion that we did tonight in some respects makes us appreciate it a little bit more," said Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "I thought Georgetown played a phenomenal match and it clearly could have gone either way."
Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 22-25, 25-15, 23-25, 25-21 and 15-13.
Creighton closes the regular-season with a 23-6 record and 16-2 mark in BIG EAST Conference action, one game better than runner-up Marquette. Georgetown ends its season with a 8-22 record, 2-16 in league play.
Georgetown came to play early, using an 8-1 run to move ahead 14-7. The margin grew to 21-11 before CU pushed back. Three straight aces by junior Taryn Kloth narrowed the gap to 21-18 as the Hoyas called their second timeout. CU drew within one point at 22-21 and 23-22, but could get no closer before an ace from Kenzie Higareda closed out the set with a 25-22 win. Symone Speech had seven kills in nine swings as GU hit .421 in the set. CU's offense never got untracked, hitting just .226 with 10 kills.
Creighton fell behind early in the second set, only to close the set on a 13-3 run to take a 25-15 decision and even the match. Three straight blocks of Alyssa Sinnette by Lydia Dimke and Megan Ballenger helped fuel the spurt, which came on Brittany Witt's serve. CU had six blocks in the second set alone.
Creighton lost the third set 25-23 before answering with a fourth set victory. CU called timeout with a 22-21 lead and got three consecutive kills by Wilkinson to take the set and force the fifth frame.
Georgetown scored the first three points of the set, leading to a quick Bluejay timeout. CU would trail 5-0 and 7-2 before drawing within 7-4. The Hoyas led 8-5 when the teams switched sides. CU drew within one at 8-7 on a kill by Kloth, only to have GU return the margin to two with a block. Consecutive kills by Kloth gave CU its first kill of the fifth set at 11-10, and CU scored the final three points on kills from Kloth and Winters before a title-clinching ace by Roumeliotis. Kloth had five of her 14 kills on the night in the final frame after CU fell behind 8-6.
"Taryn had some great swings in the fifth set," said Booth. "We dug ourselves in such a big hole that to stay composed and figure out a way to win was pretty impressive."
Dimke notched her third double-double in the last two weeks with 57 assists and 11 digs, while Winters posted her third straight double-double with 16 kills and 10 digs. Wilkinson had 13 kills and Ballenger added a dozen kills to go with a career-high eight blocks. Brittany Witt paced the defense with 25 digs, and both Roumeliotis and Kloth notched three aces. Creighton had 67 kills, nine aces, 66 digs and 14 blocks on .308 hitting.
Speech led Georgetown with 25 kills on .353 hitting. Alyssa Sinnette tallied 15 kills and Higareda owned a match-high 28 digs. The Hoyas hit .252 and finished with 64 kills, seven aces, 62 digs and three blocks.
Creighton will open play at the BIG EAST Championship, presented by Jeep, next Friday at 12:30 p.m. against fourth-seeded Villanova. The match will take place in Milwaukee, Wis., and be broadcast by BEDN. The teams split a pair of regular-season meetings, with CU winning in four sets in Omaha before 'Nova swept the Bluejays last night in Pennsylvania.
"We're excited for the BIG EAST Tournament. This is why you work from January on, for Tournament season, and we're excited to another opportunity play a very good Villanova team that is playing for their life again on Friday. We know that they will play great again and we're going to need to step up things on our side of the court to be successful."
Tournament host Marquette earned the second seed and will meet third-seeded Butler in the 2:30 p.m. semifinal.
NOTES: Creighton improved to 3-1 this season in five-set matches, and 51-27 all-time under Kirsten Bernthal Booth in the fifth frame .. Creighton is now 79-9 in regular-season BIG EAST play all-time ... Creighton has won 105 straight matches (including all 98 under Kirsten Bernthal Booth) when hitting .300 or better ... Creighton has won 23 or more matches each of the last six seasons ... Creighton improved to 10-0 all-time against Georgetown ... Creighton is 8-0 all-time as a No. 1 seed in conference tournament action, with four titles ... Marysa Wilkinson (1,137) passed Allie Oelke (1,126) for ninth place on Creighton's all-time kills list ... Wilkinson also moved into second in Creighton's career sets played list with 483, trailing only Lauren Smith (511) ... The victory was the 104th win in the last four seasons, tied for most of any senior class in program history.
Players Mentioned
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