Creighton University
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Kentucky
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Volleyball Beats #5 Kentucky in Season Opener
8/24/2018 4:51:00 PM | Volleyball
Jays battle back to take down SEC favorite
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Senior All-American Jaali Winters had 25 kills and 10 digs to help No. 13 Creighton Volleyball fend off a pair of match points and post a season-opening five-set win over No. 5 Kentucky on Friday afternoon in the Trojan Invitational.
Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 20-25, 25-18, 14-25, 25-21 and 22-20. It was the highest-scoring fifth set in program history, eclipsing the 20 points CU scored in the 2016 NCAA Tournament win over Kansas that sent the Bluejays to the Sweet 16.
Creighton led 10-6 early in the first set before Kentucky turned the tables with an 11-2 run that saw the Bluejays use both timeouts. Despite a commanding 16-7 lead in kills and a 13-8 lead in digs, CU was not able to cash in thanks to eight attack errors and nine serving miscues. Jaali Winters led CU with six kills in the opening frame, while Alexa Roumeliotis and Madelyn Cole each added four digs. Avery Skinner led UK with four kills in the opener.
Creighton used a 7-0 run early in the second set to build a 10-3 lead and never were threatened in taking a 25-18 set two decision. CU hit .444 with 15 swings in 27 swings and held UK to .000 hitting on 34 swings. Megan Ballenger had a hand in four of CU's five blocks in the set, and a kill from Kari Zumach closed the set.
Kentucky trailed 3-1 early in the third set before scoring the next four points to take the lead for good. The Wildcat block, which had two stuffs through two sets, had five rejections in the third stanza. CU trailed just 15-12 after a block by Cole, but UK responded with the next five points and won a 25-14 inning to go up 2-1 in the match.
After falling behind 12-9 in the fourth set, Creighton used an 8-0 run on the serve of Winters to move ahead 17-12. Kentucky had other ideas, using a 8-1 surge to retake the lead at 21-20. Creighton then scored the final five points of the fourth frame, including four consecutive kills by Winters to give CU a 25-21 victory.
The fifth set was one for the ages, featuring 11 ties and five lead changes. Creighton saved a pair of match points before finally converting on its sixth chance for the 22-20 win. The Bluejays actually fell behind 7-3 before regrouping to tie the score at 9-9. CU gained its first advantage at 12-11 on a kill from Winters, and had opportunities to close out the contest at 14-13, 15-14, 17-16, 18-17 and 20-19 before Winters finally ended the contest with a kill through a block with CU leading 21-20. CU's rally was all the more impressive considering it had to stave off match points when trailing 16-15 and 19-18, only to sideout each occasion with a kill.
First Team All-American Leah Edmond led Kentucky with 16 kills and added nine digs and five blocks, while Avery Skinner was close behind with 15 kills on .282 hitting. UK had 49 kills, four aces, 63 digs and 12.5 blocks while hitting .188 overall.
In addition to Winters 25 kills and 10 digs, she also added four blocks and two aces. Kloth contributed 17 kills and seven digs, and Ballenger finished with 10 kills and a team-best six blocks. Cole had 53 assists and 13 digs in her Bluejay debut, and Brittany Witt had a team-best 16 digs. Alexa Roumeliotis's return to her home state was also successful, as the sophomore contributed a career-high 15 digs. CU finished with 66 kills, five aces, 73 digs and 11.0 blocks on .191 hitting.
The Bluejays return to the court tonight at 7 p.m. Central when it takes on Northern Iowa. Links to live stats, live video and live audio can be found at GoCreighton.com on the volleyball schedule page.
NOTES: Jaali Winters became the 15th Creighton player since 1994 to start in four season-opening matches, and first since Jess Bird and Lauren Smith from 2013-16 ... Madelyn Cole is Creighton's sixth different setter in the past seven seasons to start the opening match of the fall. Each of the previous six teams made the NCAA Tournament ... Cole is the seventh Bluejay to open her Creighton career with a double-double, and first since Lydia Dimke in 2016 ... Cole's 53 assists are two shy of Brittany Coleman's (2003) school mark for assists in a Creighton debut ... Jaali Winters moved past Kelly Goc (1,414) and into third place in Creighton history with 1,417 career kills ... Winters has had 10 or more kills in 11 straight matches dating to last season, tied for the eight-longest streak in program history. Winters owns three of the 10 longest such streaks in program history ... Creighton improved to 16-9 all-time in season-opening matches, including a 12-4 mark under Kirsten Bernthal Booth ... Creighton is now 2-2 against ranked teams in season-openers, as it had also beaten No. 13 BYU to open the 2013 campaign ... Today was the fifth time in the last seven years that the team to win the first set had lost Creighton's season-opening match ... Today was the third time in the last four seasons that CU's opening match went five sets ... Each of the first four meetings between Creighton and Kentucky were 3-0 sweeps, with the teams alternating wins (UK in 2014 and 2016; CU in 2015 and 2017) ... Creighton freshmen Kari Zumach (8 kills, 3 blocks), Jaela Zimmerman (1 kill, 6 digs) and Annika Welty (1 kill, 1 dig) all made their collegiate debuts .... Creighton finished with five service aces and 23 service errors ... Kentucky went 29-4 last year and is picked to win the SEC this season ... Creighton improved to 53-27 all-time in fifth set matches under Kirsten Bernthal Booth ... Creighton improved to 11-71 all-time against top-25 teams, but that mark improves to 6-5 since the start of the 2016 NCAA Tournament ... Creighton is now 5-27 all-time against top-10 teams ... The only teams ranked in the top-five that Creighton had previously beaten were No. 3 Washington (2017) and No. 4 Kansas (2016) ... Creighton improved to 7-10 all-time as a ranked team when playing another ranked club ... Today's victory was the ninth victory under Kirsten Bernthal Booth after Creighton survived a match point, and first since Nov. 20, 2015 at Georgetown ... Creighton had never survived a match point to defeat a ranked opponent ... Creighton also survived a match point in its 2011 season-opener vs. UTSA.
