Volleyball Knocks Off #12 Kentucky For First Win

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- A career-high 17 kills on .640 hitting from junior Naomi Hickman helped No. 23 Creighton Volleyball team pick up its first victory of the season, a 3-1 win over No. 12 Kentucky, on Friday.

It's the third straight season Creighton has knocked off a top-15 Kentucky team, and fourth time in the last five seasons.

Scores of the match in favor of CU were 25-23, 20-25, 25-18, 25-22.. The match was the first of the UNI Tournament, held at McLeod Center on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa.

Creighton won the first set in a tightly-contested battle featuring 17 ties and six lead changes. The score was knotted at 23-all before the Jays closed out the set with a kill by Keeley Davis and a double-block by Erica Kostelac and Hickman. Madelyn Cole dished 17 assists in the opener as the Jays pounded 22 kills from seven different women. Kostelac had six kills on .625 hitting to pace the offense.

The second set included 14 more ties and six lead exchanges before the Wildcats evened the match with a 25-20 win. Creighton led 19-18 after Hickman and Cole combined for a block, only to see UK rattle off a 7-1 run to end the set. Creighton had five blocks in the second set, including four from Cole, but hit just .171.

Creighton used a 7-0 serving run from Brittany Witt to open up an 11-4 lead in the third set en route to a 25-18 victory. Ballenger and Hickman each had five kills in the third set, hitting a combined .714 in 14 errorless swings.

The Bluejays opened up a 6-1 lead in the fourth set thanks to aces by Hickman and Jaela Zimmerman and would not trail the rest of the way. A block by Cole and Ballenger ended the match. Witt had nine digs in the final set and Cole distributed 14 assists to five different Bluejays.

Hickman's 17 kills were eight more than her previous best of nine, and she hit .640 in 25 swings. Fellow middle blocker Megan Ballenger also came up big, hitting .579 with 12 kills on 19 swings. Ballenger and Cole shared team-high honors with five blocks each, and Witt contributed a season-high 23 digs. Creighton had 65 kills, four aces, 63 digs and 10 blocks on .319 hitting.

Kentucky was paced by 18 kills from 2018 SEC Player of the Year Leah Edmond, and Gabby Curry added 21 digs. Madison Lilley finished with 47 assists and 10 digs while Alli Stumler recorded 15 kills and 18 digs to notch double-doubles for the Wildcats, who tallied 55 kills, three aces, 66 digs and four blocks on .216 hitting.

Creighton returns to the court tonight at 7:30 p.m. when it takes on tournament host Northern Iowa in a match that will also air on ESPN+. The Panthers are 2-1 on the season and have not played since Saturday.

NOTES: Grace Nelson, who had 13 digs all of last season, finished with seven digs for Creighton ... Since 2015 Creighton has defeated No. 10 Kentucky (3-0 in 2015), No. 13 Kentucky (3-0 in 2017), No. 5 Kentucky (3-2 in 2018) and now No. 12 Kentucky (3-1 in 2019) .. Creighton has won 121 consecutive matches when hitting .300 or better ... Kentucky has made 14 straight NCAA Tournaments under former Nebraska assistant coach Craig Skinner, with five Sweet 16 trips in that time ... Creighton, which battled No. 2 Nebraska and No. 20 Baylor last week before No. 12 Kentucky today, is the nation's only team to start the 2019 campaign with matches against three different ranked teams ... Creighton avoided its first 0-3 start since 2002 ... Creighton improved to 15-77 all-time against top-25 teams, but is 10-11 since the start of the 2016 NCAA Tournament ... Creighton has beaten at least one ranked team in each of the last five seasons.

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Team Stats

Naomi Hickman

Keeley Davis

Erica Kostelac

Megan Ballenger

Players Mentioned

Megan Ballenger

Madelyn Cole

Keeley Davis

Naomi Hickman

Erica Kostelac

Grace Nelson

Brittany Witt

Jaela Zimmerman

Players Mentioned

Megan Ballenger

Madelyn Cole

Keeley Davis

Naomi Hickman

Erica Kostelac

Grace Nelson

Brittany Witt

Jaela Zimmerman