#9 Volleyball Hosts #16 Marquette for BIG EAST Championship Title

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BIG EAST Championship Schedule
Nov. 24   4:00 p.m.   #16 Marquette at #9 Creighton (FS2)   Omaha, Neb. (D.J. Sokol Arena)

• No. 9 Creighton Volleyball (27-4) looks for a fifth straight BIG EAST Championship title on Saturday when it hosts No. 16 Marquette (26-5) at 4 p.m. inside D.J. Sokol Arena in Omaha, Neb. The match will air on FS2.
   At stake is an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, though both teams are locks for the Big Dance and also in contention to earn national seeds.

• Creighton is appearing in its eighth conference tournament title game in program history, all in the last nine years, and seventh straight. Creighton is 5-2 in the previous seven title game appearances, including a 4-1 mark since joining the BIG EAST in the summer of 2013.

• With a win on Saturday, Creighton can become the first school to win five straight BIG EAST Championship titles since Pittsburgh won seven straight from 1988-94.
   It would also make Creighton the nation's only team to win a conference tournament each of the last five seasons.

• Creighton has won nine straight matches at the BIG EAST Championship to improve to 10-1 all-time at the event. The only loss came in the 2013 final, a 3-1 setback against Marquette in Omaha.
   Creighton is 2-1 all-time against Marquette in the BIG EAST Championship, having lost in the 2013 final (3-1 in Omaha), but picking up wins in 2015 semifinal (3-2 in the Omaha) and in the 2017 final (3-2 in Milwaukee).

• Creighton's senior class is a perfect 40-0 in their career at D.J. Sokol Arena against BIG EAST teams (37-0 in the regular-season, 3-0 in the BIG EAST Championship).
   Creighton enters Saturday with a 13-match home win streak, which ties a school-record.

• Across all athletic programs, Creighton is 4-10 in BIG EAST Championship title matches, but all four wins have come in volleyball. CU has also reached (and lost) the title tilt in baseball (three times), men's basketball (twice), men's soccer (twice), softball (once), women's basketball (once) and volleyball (once).

• Creighton is 11-0 all-time as the No. 1 seed in conference tournament play, including a 9-0 mark in the BIG EAST and a 2-0 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference.

• Creighton has won 17 of its last 19 sets played in the BIG EAST Championship, a streak that started on Nov. 27, 2015 when it won the fifth set against Marquette. Since that time, CU has swept Villanova three times and both Seton Hall and Xavier once each, while also picking up a 3-2 win over Marquette in 2017.
   The last team to win 3-2 in the finals in consecutive seasons was Pittsburgh in 1993 and 1994.

• Ten of the last 11 teams to win the first set of the BIG EAST Championship title match have gone on to win the match, and are 30-6 all-time in the finals when taking a 1-0 lead. The exception came last year, when Creighton lost the first set but won the match in five frames.
   Only two teams in event history have dropped the first two sets and won the title match (Pittsburgh in 1993, Louisville in 2006).
   Creighton is 23-2 this year when winning the first set, and 4-2 when it doesn't.

• Creighton is seeking its third title in five events this season. Earlier this fall, the Bluejays won the SMU DoubleTree Classic and the Bluejay Invitational.
   Each of Creighton's tournament titles this fall has had a different MVP this year, as Megan Ballenger was honored at the SMU DoubleTree Classic and Jaali Winters taking top honors at the Bluejay Invitational.

• Yesterday's victory moved Creighton's unofficial RPI to 15th heading into the day before Selection Sunday (Marquette is 14th). Creighton's official NCAA RPI has hovered between 14th and 22nd all eight weeks since the NCAA began revealing those rankings on October 1st.

• Creighton is 37-2 in the month of November during the last five seasons, including 10 straight wins.

• Creighton picked up its 27th win of the season on Friday, tied for third-most in program history. Creighton's 2015 team went 27-9, while the 2012 (29-4) and 2016 (29-7) teams each won 29 times.

• Creighton has played 19 matches this fall against BIG EAST teams, and allowed three aces or fewer in 17 of them.
   Creighton has served more aces than its opponent in 18-of-19 matches against BIG EAST competition this fall, and won 78 straight contests against league foes when owning more aces than its opponent.

• Creighton has won each of its last eight matches via sweep, a program record.
   Creighton's 25 straight set victories tie a record first done from Oct. 28-Nov. 18, 2016. The last team to win a set against the Bluejays was Marquette, which won the third set on Oct. 26, 2018.

• Creighton has won 19 straight matches, just four shy of the program record held by the 2016 team that went on to reach the Elite Eight.
   Thanks to losses this week by BYU (27) and Minnesota (19), Creighton's 19-match win streak is now the nation's fifth-longest active streak in the country entering Saturday. Only Stephen F. Austin (29), Stanford (25), UCF (24) and Kentucky (20) have longer active win streaks.

• Creighton is 15-4 all-time against Marquette, and 2-1 against the Golden Eagles in BIG EAST Championship play. The Bluejays are 11-1 in the past five seasons against MU, and have posted at least one 3-0 win in Omaha over the Golden Eagles in each of the last four years (including 2018).
   Teams to win the first set are 17-2 all-time in the history of the series, and CU has owned a 2-0 lead at intermission in eight of the last 12 meetings.
   Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 15-4 against Marquette and 11-1 against Ryan Theis.

• Creighton is 24-0 this year when winning the third set (and 3-4 when it doesn't), and has won 80 in a row when winning the third set against a BIG EAST foe.
   Marquette is 26-1 this year when it wins the third set (and 0-4 when it doesn't). The lone loss came on Oct. 26 to Creighton.

• Creighton won both regular-season meetings with Marquette this season, winning 3-0 in Omaha on Sept. 23 before taking a 3-1 decision on Oct. 26 in Milwaukee.
   Taryn Kloth hit .464 and had 16 kills in the first meeting to lead Creighton, which outblocked MU 7.5 - 1.0.
   In the rematch, Jaali Winters proved worthy of her BIG EAST Player of the Year acclaim with 25 kills and 19 digs.
   Creighton hit .327 in the two wins, with Winters averaging 5.71 kills and 4.29 digs per set on .380 hitting, and Kloth contributing 4.71 kills on .333 hitting. Brittany Witt averaged 5.00 digs per set and Madelyn Cole averaged 13.29 assists per frame.
   Marquette was led by Allie Barber's 5.43 kills per set on .333 hitting in the two losses.

• Saturday's title tilt only solidifies how much better Creighton and Marquette have been than the rest of the pack in the BIG EAST. Since the BIG EAST's reconfiguration in 2013, Creighton (5) and Marquette (1) have won all six regular-season titles, and all five (Creighton 4, Marquette 1) BIG EAST Championship titles.
   Since the BIG EAST was reconfigured in 2013, Creighton is 107-10 against BIG EAST teams (including BIG EAST Championship), with five of those losses (and 13 wins) coming in 2013.
   Marquette is 87-25. Sitting a distant third with a 68-43 mark is Xavier.

• Creighton is a virtual lock to make its seventh straight NCAA Tournament, and eighth in the past nine seasons. Creighton entered this season as one of 19 schools to play in each of the last six NCAA Tournaments, a grouping that also includes Marquette.
   Creighton is 9-7 in six previous NCAA Tournament appearances, with all of those trips coming since 2010. The Bluejays went 1-1 in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2017, went 0-1 in 2014, went 2-1 in 2015 to reach the program's first Sweet 16 and in 2016 went 3-1 in the NCAA's to become the BIG EAST's first Elite Eight qualifier in history.

• Saturday's final between No. 9 Creighton and No. 16 Marquette is the first BIG EAST Championship match-up between ranked teams since Nov. 18, 2007, when No. 20 St. John's swept No. 21 Louisville.

• Creighton is 13-74 all-time against top-25 teams, but 8-8 since the start of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
   Creighton is 9-13 all-time against ranked teams when ranked itself.
   Creighton is 14-1 all-time when ranked exactly ninth.
   Creighton's three wins over ranked teams this season tie a school-record first done in 2017.
   Saturday's match will be Creighton's seventh this fall against a ranked team, the fourth straight year they've played seven matches against top-25 competition.
   In six matches against ranked teams this season, Taryn Kloth has averaged 4.77 kills per set and hits .302. She's averaging 20.7 kills per match against ranked foes this fall. Not to be forgotten, Jaali Winters averages 4.35 kills and 3.12 digs per set versus top-25 competition this fall, and has had a double-double in all six matches.

• Creighton's 109 wins since 2015 is the most for any four-year stretch in program history.
   Including conference tournament play, Creighton is 76-3 in the last four seasons against opponents from the BIG EAST. That includes a 9-1 record versus Marquette.

• Creighton has attracted 40,329 fans at home this year, and ranks in the top-10 nationally with 2,881 fans per home contest.
   By comparison, the other nine teams in the BIG EAST have combined to host 44,619 fans in 117 home dates (381 per match) this fall.

• Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 10-1 in BIG EAST Championship action with four titles. The rest of the league's active coaches are a combined 10-23 with one title.
   This year marks the first rematch in a BIG EAST Championship title game since 2009 and 2010, when Louisville beat Cincinnati in consecutive years.

• Yesterday's win improved Kirsten Bernthal Booth to 344-164 in 16 seasons as Creighton head coach, including a 10-1 mark in BIG EAST Championship play.
   Booth is already one of five coaches in league history to win four or more BIG EAST Championship titles, joining Notre Dame's Debbie Brown (9), Pittsburgh's Shelton Collier (4), Pittsburgh's Sue Woodstra (4) and Louisville's Leonid Yelin (4). A win on Saturday would make Booth the second person with five BIG EAST Championship to her name, joining Brown.

• Madelyn Cole had 41 assists in Friday's win over Villanova, upping her BIG EAST-leading average to 10.85 assists per set.
   Cole also ranks second in the BIG EAST with 0.42 aces per set. Her 45 aces are tied for third-most in Bluejay history in one season, and two shy of second place.
   Cole owns at least one ace in eight straight matches, and has 25 aces in her past 10 contests.

• Sophomore Naomi Hickman tied her career-high with nine kills and matched her season-high with .500 hitting in Friday's victory over Villanova.
   Hickman's nine kills tied her total from last year's BIG EAST semifinal, also against Villanova.

• Taryn Kloth is attempting to become the third player in BIG EAST Championship history to be named MVP in consecutive seasons, joining Pitt's Ann Marie Lucanie (1990-93) and Notre Dame's Jaime Lee (1996-97). Jaali Winters was named MVP at the 2016 BIG EAST Championships.
   Lucanie and Lee are the only two-time BIG EAST Championship MVP's in league history.

• With a dozen more kills on Friday Taryn Kloth now owns 444 this season, which places her seventh in Creighton single-season history. Only three women (including Leah Ratzlaff twice) have ever had 450 or more kills in a season for the Bluejays, with Alicia Runge (463 in 2010) owning the most by a senior among that grouping.
   Kloth's 12 kills give her 1,381 in her career, passing JoDe Cieloha (1,375) for sixth in program history. She can pass Jessica Houts (1,385) for fifth place with more than four kills on Saturday.

• Jaali Winters had a match-best 13 kills in Friday's win vs. Villanova, giving her 1,804 in her career. She moved past South Florida's Marcela Gurgel (1,801) for sixth in BIG EAST history, and now trails Pitt's Ann Marie Lucanie (1,815) by 11 for fifth place.
   Winters had her 57th career double-double in Friday's win, tied for fourth-most in program history. It was her fifth double-double in seven career BIG EAST Championship matches.
   Earlier this week Winters was named First Team All-BIG EAST for the fourth time. She's the third athlete in Creighton history across all sports to earn four First Team All-Conference honors, joining Tara Oltman (softball) and Doug McDermott (men's basketball).

• Brittany Witt had 22 digs in Friday's win over Villanova, the most in a three-set match by any Bluejay since Kate Elman had 24 vs. Butler on Nov. 15, 2015.
   In last season's title match win vs. Marquette, Witt had a career-high 34 digs, just four shy of CU's school record.
   Witt is three digs shy of 1,500 in her career, something only Elman (2,054) has done in Creighton history. Witt has 10 or more digs in each of CU's last nine contests, and 84-of-100 overall in her career.

• Pressed into a new role caused by an injury to Samantha Bohnet in warm-ups, freshman Jaela Zimmerman stepped up to the challenge on Friday vs. Villanova as a defensive specialist. Zimmerman had served just three times all year entering the match before authoring nine serves on Friday. She also added two digs and passed at high level in serve receive.
   Zimmerman started eight times as CU's right-side hitter earlier this season before an injury sidelined her and Kari Zumach took over that position.
   Zimmerman was a two-time Nebraska State Player of the Year and the nation's No. 49 recruit.

• Regardless of Saturday's result, Creighton Volleyball fans and media are invited to join the student-athletes and coaches at the D.J.'s Dugout (1003 Capitol Street) Sunday night to watch the 2018 NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship Selection Show, which will be televised live nationally on ESPNU starting at 8:30 p.m. Central.

#9 Volleyball Hosts #16 Marquette for BIG EAST Championship Title

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Players Mentioned

Megan Ballenger

Samantha Bohnet

Madelyn Cole

Naomi Hickman

Taryn Kloth

Jaali Winters

Brittany Witt

Jaela Zimmerman

Kari Zumach