Creighton topped Butler in 5 sets on Friday.
Photo by: Steve Branscombe
#10 Volleyball Downs Butler In Five Sets To Win BIG EAST Road Opener
9/28/2018 7:22:00 PM | Volleyball
Jays win third straight meeting over BU in five sets
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Fourteen kills in the final two sets from senior Taryn Kloth helped No. 10 Creighton Volleyball rally to earn a hard-fought 3-2 victory at Butler on Friday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 25-19, 24-26, 28-30, 25-18, 15-11. It was the third straight match between the Bluejays and Bulldogs to go five sets, with Creighton winning each of those.
"Credit Butler. I thought they played a great match," said Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "As we know they're a great blocking team and they displayed that tonight. I thought as things started to go their way we got a little passive with our serving and that led to more problems because they were in system a lot. As we got more momentum in sets four and five we served better and that was critical. Obviously we'll see things we need to do better, but we have an opportunity to learn from the match and I'm thankful we showed great grit to figure out a way to win."
Creighton (11-4, 3-0 BIG EAST) won the first set, taking a 25-19 decision. The Bluejays raced to a 14-8 lead and never trailed again while holding Butler to -.071 hitting.
Butler (4-11, 1-2 BIG EAST) used a 5-0 run and led 14-8 midway through the second set, before the Bluejays switched to a 6-2 offense as Megan Sharkey and Kari Zumach that helped change CU's luck. Creighton kept chipping away and eventually would use a 5-0 run of its own to build a 23-21 lead. Butler tied it on consecutive kills by Brooke Gregory, and after the teams' traded three sideouts the Bulldogs won the frame on a back row attack error by the Bluejays. The call was disputed by the CU staff, but Hinkle Fieldhouse does not use the Challenge Review System and the Jays were unable to challenge set point. Butler, which tied a school-record with 23 blocks last Saturday at St. John's, had six blocks in the second set and outblocked CU 16.5 - 4.0 overall.
Both teams had chances to take a 2-1 lead in the match before Butler ultimately won a 30-28 decision in a third set that featured 20 ties and eight lead changes.CU's chance came with a 25-24 lead, but Butler extended the frame before the host Bulldogs eventually converted its fifth set point opportunity. Five different Bulldog players had multiple kills, including five from Melody Davidson.
Kloth had eight kills and an ace in the fourth set, a 25-18 win, to help CU force a fifth set. CU trailed 11-10 in the fourth before Kloth authored a 6-0 run that put the Jays in front for good.
The Jays fell behind 5-2 in the final set and still trailed 8-6 as teams switched benches before making their rally. CU evened the score at 9-all on an ace by Brittany Witt. Kills from Zumach and Kloth pushed the Bluejay lead to 12-10, and the Jays converted their second match point chance when Kloth's 26th kill hit off a defender before soaring into the crowd to end the contest. It was her sixth kill of the set
"The last half of the match Taryn (Kloth) played all six rotations and she was a force in the front and back row," noted Booth. "(Brittany) Witt was covering a lot of ground as well. In a five-game match that wasn't very offensive for either team, there were a lot of long rallies."
Kloth's 26 kills tied her career-high previously done on Sept. 6 vs. Nebraska, while her 17 digs were a career best, as the reigning BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week had her first double-double of the season. Witt added a season-best 27 digs. Creighton had 59 kills, five aces, 90 digs and four blocks on .182 hitting.
Butler was led by 10 kills each from Natalie Ravenell, Shanice Horn and Bri Lilly. Lilly added 11 blocks. The Bulldogs hit .168 and finished with 52 kills, three aces, 74 digs and 16.5 blocks.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday at 4 p.m. Central with a match at Xavier.
NOTES: Jaali Winters surpassed 1,200 career digs in the first set and now owns 1,213 in her career. Her 1,595 career kills rank one behind Melissa Walsh for second in program history, and are 27 behind Leah Ratzlaff's school-record mark of 1,622 ... Taryn Kloth moved into ninth place in CU history with 1,181 career kills, passing Lauren Smith (1,160). Today marked her fifth match this fall with 20 or more kills, and she's the fourth player in CU history with three or more matches of 25+ kills in the same season ... Creighton has never swept its first three league matches ... Megan Sharkey had season-highs with 14 assists and seven digs ... Creighton improved to 54-29 all-time in five-set matches under Kirsten Bernthal Booth, including a 2-2 mark this year and a 10-3 mark in BIG EAST action ... Tonight's win was Kirsten Bernthal Booth's 328th at Creighton, which ranks fifth among all coaches in school history across all sports. It's one more than Dana Altman, and trails only Brent Vigness (757), Mary Higgins (564), Ed Servais (517) and Tom Lilly (427) ... Creighton has won 49 straight matches over unranked teams when winning the opening set ... Butler fell to 0-4 in five-set matches this year ... Creighton has won 10 straight meetings over Butler ... Brittany Witt has had 10 or more digs in 18 straight matches ... Creighton is 20-1 in its last 21 matches in the Eastern time zone ... Creighton improved to 16-9 all-time in league road openers, including a 13-3 mark under Kirsten Bernthal Booth ... Jaali Winters had her 52nd career double-double ...
Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 25-19, 24-26, 28-30, 25-18, 15-11. It was the third straight match between the Bluejays and Bulldogs to go five sets, with Creighton winning each of those.
"Credit Butler. I thought they played a great match," said Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "As we know they're a great blocking team and they displayed that tonight. I thought as things started to go their way we got a little passive with our serving and that led to more problems because they were in system a lot. As we got more momentum in sets four and five we served better and that was critical. Obviously we'll see things we need to do better, but we have an opportunity to learn from the match and I'm thankful we showed great grit to figure out a way to win."
Creighton (11-4, 3-0 BIG EAST) won the first set, taking a 25-19 decision. The Bluejays raced to a 14-8 lead and never trailed again while holding Butler to -.071 hitting.
Butler (4-11, 1-2 BIG EAST) used a 5-0 run and led 14-8 midway through the second set, before the Bluejays switched to a 6-2 offense as Megan Sharkey and Kari Zumach that helped change CU's luck. Creighton kept chipping away and eventually would use a 5-0 run of its own to build a 23-21 lead. Butler tied it on consecutive kills by Brooke Gregory, and after the teams' traded three sideouts the Bulldogs won the frame on a back row attack error by the Bluejays. The call was disputed by the CU staff, but Hinkle Fieldhouse does not use the Challenge Review System and the Jays were unable to challenge set point. Butler, which tied a school-record with 23 blocks last Saturday at St. John's, had six blocks in the second set and outblocked CU 16.5 - 4.0 overall.
Both teams had chances to take a 2-1 lead in the match before Butler ultimately won a 30-28 decision in a third set that featured 20 ties and eight lead changes.CU's chance came with a 25-24 lead, but Butler extended the frame before the host Bulldogs eventually converted its fifth set point opportunity. Five different Bulldog players had multiple kills, including five from Melody Davidson.
Kloth had eight kills and an ace in the fourth set, a 25-18 win, to help CU force a fifth set. CU trailed 11-10 in the fourth before Kloth authored a 6-0 run that put the Jays in front for good.
The Jays fell behind 5-2 in the final set and still trailed 8-6 as teams switched benches before making their rally. CU evened the score at 9-all on an ace by Brittany Witt. Kills from Zumach and Kloth pushed the Bluejay lead to 12-10, and the Jays converted their second match point chance when Kloth's 26th kill hit off a defender before soaring into the crowd to end the contest. It was her sixth kill of the set
"The last half of the match Taryn (Kloth) played all six rotations and she was a force in the front and back row," noted Booth. "(Brittany) Witt was covering a lot of ground as well. In a five-game match that wasn't very offensive for either team, there were a lot of long rallies."
Kloth's 26 kills tied her career-high previously done on Sept. 6 vs. Nebraska, while her 17 digs were a career best, as the reigning BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week had her first double-double of the season. Witt added a season-best 27 digs. Creighton had 59 kills, five aces, 90 digs and four blocks on .182 hitting.
Butler was led by 10 kills each from Natalie Ravenell, Shanice Horn and Bri Lilly. Lilly added 11 blocks. The Bulldogs hit .168 and finished with 52 kills, three aces, 74 digs and 16.5 blocks.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday at 4 p.m. Central with a match at Xavier.
NOTES: Jaali Winters surpassed 1,200 career digs in the first set and now owns 1,213 in her career. Her 1,595 career kills rank one behind Melissa Walsh for second in program history, and are 27 behind Leah Ratzlaff's school-record mark of 1,622 ... Taryn Kloth moved into ninth place in CU history with 1,181 career kills, passing Lauren Smith (1,160). Today marked her fifth match this fall with 20 or more kills, and she's the fourth player in CU history with three or more matches of 25+ kills in the same season ... Creighton has never swept its first three league matches ... Megan Sharkey had season-highs with 14 assists and seven digs ... Creighton improved to 54-29 all-time in five-set matches under Kirsten Bernthal Booth, including a 2-2 mark this year and a 10-3 mark in BIG EAST action ... Tonight's win was Kirsten Bernthal Booth's 328th at Creighton, which ranks fifth among all coaches in school history across all sports. It's one more than Dana Altman, and trails only Brent Vigness (757), Mary Higgins (564), Ed Servais (517) and Tom Lilly (427) ... Creighton has won 49 straight matches over unranked teams when winning the opening set ... Butler fell to 0-4 in five-set matches this year ... Creighton has won 10 straight meetings over Butler ... Brittany Witt has had 10 or more digs in 18 straight matches ... Creighton is 20-1 in its last 21 matches in the Eastern time zone ... Creighton improved to 16-9 all-time in league road openers, including a 13-3 mark under Kirsten Bernthal Booth ... Jaali Winters had her 52nd career double-double ...
Team Stats
CU
BU
Kills
69
52
Errors
34
23
Attempts
192
173
Hitting %
.182
.168
Points
78.0
71.5
Assists
64
48
Aces
5
3
Blocks
4.0
16.5
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Players Mentioned
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