Volleyball Renews Rivalry vs. Kansas With Sweet 16 Berth Up For Grabs

NCAA Tournament - Second Round
Dec. 3   7:00 pm   Kansas at #20 Creighton (ESPN+)   Omaha, Neb. (D.J. Sokol Arena)
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE STATS | CU NOTES (PDF) | KU NOTES (PDF)

• Creighton (31-3) and Kansas (17-11) renew postseason acquaintances on Friday, Dec. 3, when the teams tangle in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament with a berth in the Sweet 16 up for grabs.
   First serve inside D.J. Sokol Arena in Omaha, Neb., is set for 7 p.m.
   The match will be broadcast on subscription-based ESPN+, with Jake Eisenberg and Shannon Smolinski on the call.

• Kansas owns an 8-3 lead in the all-time series against Creighton, including a 3-1 mark in Omaha and a 2-1 mark inside D.J. Sokol Arena.
   The teams have split two previous NCAA Tournament meetings, but both of those contests were in Lawrence.
   On Dec. 7, 2013, No. 23 Kansas defeated Creighton in four sets (25-20, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21) at Phog Allen Fieldhouse. Lauren Smith led Creighton with 12 kills and Michelle Sicner added 38 assists, eight digs, seven kills and five blocks. KU was topped by 18 kills and 17 digs from Chelsea Albers, while Cassie Wait added a team-best 19 digs. Albers attended the same Papillion-La Vista (Neb.) High School as current Creighton phenom Norah Sis, while Wait is the older sister of fellow Creighton freshman phenom Kendra Wait.
   On Dec. 2, 2016 (five years ago yesterday), No. 21 Creighton defeated No. 4 Kansas (21-25, 25-20, 25-17, 16-25, 20-18) in a match that longtime Creighton followers consider the best match in program history. That victory was the second of three straight five-set NCAA wins as the Bluejays reached their only Elite Eight to date. The fifth set alone featured 16 ties and six lead changes, as well as a pair of dogpiles (Creighton thought it won at 18-16 in the fifth set, only for match point to be overturned and play to resume). Creighton didn't clinch the match until converting its seventh match point opportunity of the fifth set as Megan Ballenger put down a KU overpass. Cassie Wait led KU with 27 digs and All-American Kelsie Payne fiished with 26 kills. The Bluejays were paced by 23 kills and 14 digs by Jaali Winters while All-American setter Lydia Dimke collected 56 assists and 17 digs.

• Creighton setter Kendra Wait the younger sister of former Kansas libero Cassie Wait (2013-16), but that's not the only connection between the schools.
   Creighton middle blocker Naomi Hickman hails from Lawrence, Kan., and her younger sister Rachel Hickman played for the Jayhawks in 2019. Rachel currently plays for Northern Colorado and had eight kills in an NCAA Tournament loss last night vs. Washington State in Waco, Texas.
   Two other current Bluejays are from the Kansas City-area, sophomore Ellie Bolton (Shawnee, Kan.) and senior Annika Welty (Parkville, Mo.). The Bluejays also signed the nation's No. 47 recruit, Ava Martin (Overland Park, Kan.) to a letter-of-intent last month.
   Kansas super-senior Sara Nielsen attended the same high school (Benet Academy) as Creighton junior Ally Van Eekeren. Both women are setters.
   Kansas super senior Jenny Mosser and Creighton true freshman Abbey Milner are both from Lakeville, Minn., though Mosser attended Lakeville South and Milner went to Lakeville North.

• Creighton's 31 victories lead the nation this season and are a school-record, two more than the previous best done in 2012, 2016 and 2018. Creighton also leads the nation with 96 sets won in 2021.

• Creighton improved to 12-10 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, including a 3-2 home record.
   Creighton is 2-6 all-time in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament, with wins coming in 2015 at North Carolina and in 2016 at Kansas. The Bluejays are 0-2 in the Second Round at home all-time.

• Creighton has won 14 straight matches, tied for the fourth-longest win streak in program history.
   Creighton is 12-0 this fall inside D.J. Sokol Arena, where it has won 18 straight matches.

• Creighton is 7-1 this season against teams that qualified for the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

• Creighton is attempting to become the 12th No. 14 seed in the past 21 years to advance to the Sweet 16, and first since BIG EAST rival Marquette did so in 2018.
   When Kansas defeated Creighton in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, it did so as the No. 14 seed.

• Streaks extended last night by Creighton...
   - 140 straight wins when hitting .300 or better.
   - 31 straight wins when winning the first set.
   - 31 straight wins when owning a better hitting percentage than the opposition.
   - 22 straight set wins.
   - 14 straight match wins.

• With 15 digs last night, Abby Bottomley moved from 10th to a tie for eighth place on the NCAA's career digs list. Bottomley enters Friday tied with UNC Asheville's Raquel Miotto (2006-09) with 2,694 digs. In seventh place is Clemson's Keellie Arneson (2012-15) with 2,707 and in sixth is Valparaiso's Taylor Root (2,752). Bottomley would need to average 96.4 digs in each of the next five matches to reach the all-time mark of 3,176 by Chattanooga's Lara Newberry from 2005-08, which seems unlikely since CU hasn't produced more than 92 digs in any match this fall.

• Jaela Zimmerman had 10 of Creighton's first 19 kills last night before leaving the match due to injury with the Bluejays up 10-9 in the second set. Despite losing 3-of-5 points immediately after their All-American captain was helped off the court, CU would outscore Ole Miss 40-19 following Zimmerman's departure.
   Zimmerman ranks 15th in Creighton history with 997 career kills. The three-time All-BIG EAST choice is the only player in the BIG EAST to average at least 3.00 kills and 3.00 digs per set this season. She was named MVP in each of CU's final three preseason tournaments this fall.
   If Zimmerman is unable to play on Friday, it wouldn't be the first time. She missed three matches in late October against Providence, Georgetown and Villanova. CU swept all three matches, allowing more than 19 points in just one of nine sets. CU outblocked those teams 29-7, outaced them 19-8 and hit .260 compared to allowing .074 hitting.

• Last night Kendra Wait (31 assists, 13 digs) and Norah Sis (16 kills, 10 digs) each had double-doubles. Wait leads CU with 16 double-doubles, two more than Sis' 14 double-dips.
   Creighton is 7-1 when both freshmen have a double-double this fall.

• During Creighton's 14-match win streak, the Bluejays have won 42-of-44 sets and allowed the opposition to score 20 points in just 15 sets. CU has held foes to .086 hitting and averaged 3.27 blocks per set in that time. Keeley Davis and Abby Bottomley have combined for 42 digs in that time (both have 21), which is more than the 38 total aces allowed by the Bluejay defense.
   Norah Sis owns 3.86 kills per set in that time, hitting .319, and Annika Welty (1.59 bps.) and Naomi Hickman (1.50) have both averaged at least 1.50 blocks per set.

• Norah Sis enters tonight with 418 kills this season. That's 109 more than any other freshman on a top-25 team as she looks to strengthen her case as a National Freshman of the Year favorite.
   But is Sis even the best freshman on her own team? Kendra Wait owns 1,168 assists. That also leads all freshmen nationally on a top-25 club by 34.
   Sis (6) and Wait (5) combined to win 11-of-13 BIG EAST Freshman of the Week honors this fall. Not surprisingly, both women were named to the BIG EAST's All-Freshman Team.

- Both Creighton and Kansas had a Conference Freshman of the Year this fall who leads them in kills.
   Norah Sis leads CU with 418 kills (3.73 kps.), while Caroline Bien tops the Jayhawks with 308 kills (2.88 kps.). Sis also owns a better hitting percentage (.265 - .212) and more assists (20-18), digs (333-265) and blocks (69-31) than her counterpart.

• Keeley Davis served up her BIG EAST-leading 50th ace of the season last night. That trails only Molly Moran (59 in 2000) and Madelyn Cole (51 in 2018) in Creighton single-season history. Davis enters Friday just two services aces shy of becoming the eighth Bluejay to reach 100 in her career.
   Combined with Abby Bottomley's 44 aces, this year marks the first time in program history when multiple Bluejays have owned 40 or more aces in the same season.

• Creighton improved to 31-0 this season when winning the first set with last night's victory. Kansas is 10-4 when winning the first set and 7-7 when losing the first set.
   KU is also 9-0 this fall when winning the fourth set, while Creighton is 5-0 when winning the fourth set.

• Creighton averages 2,140 fans per home match this season, which ranks 16th-most nationally.
   Creighton hosted 2,351 fans last night, the eighth-largest crowd in D.J. Sokol Arena history and largest since 2019. CU's crowd was the third-largest of the five host sites last night, as seen below:
   3,172   Texas
   2,415   Purdue
   2,351   Creighton
   2,057   Florida
   1,004   Baylor

• Creighton hosts an unranked Kansas team on Friday night.
   Creighton is 79-1 in its last 80 home matches against unranked teams, losing only to South Dakota on Jan. 29, 2021 in five sets, including 18 straight victories.
   The Bluejays are 124-2 in its last 126 matches at all sites when winning the first set against unranked teams.

• Creighton is a perfect 15-0 this fall in tournament play, losing just 3-of-48 sets. CU didn't drop a set in three contests in the Mizzou Invitational to open the year, lost two sets to USC while winning three matches at the Bluegrass Battle, lost a single set to Illinois while going 3-0 at the Bluejay Invitational and was 3-0 without dropping a frame at the Shocker Volleyball Classic. Last week CU went 3-0 in wins over DePaul and Marquette at the BIG EAST Tournament, and last night the Bluejays swept Ole Miss.

• With Jaela Zimmerman unavailable for the third set, the Bluejays had the luxury to turn to Kiana Schmitt. The junior delivered with four kills in five swings while also adding a block assist. Schmitt made 18 starts this season, including six of the final seven matches of the regular-season, and ranks in the top-20 in the BIG EAST in both blocks per set and hitting percentage this fall.
   Creighton is 19-0 all-time when Schmitt owns six or more kills and 22-3 when she has multiple blocks.

• Naomi Hickman set a pair of D.J. Sokol Arena career records last night. She played in her 60th career contest in the facility (breaking a tie with four others) and also collected her five blocks to give her 243 career blocks at the venue, surpassing the mark of 240 formerly held by Lauren Smith.

• Creighton broke (or tied) the following program records for an NCAA Tournament match last night.
   Kills in a 3-set match (16, Norah Sis)
   Solo blocks in a 3-set match (3, Naomi Hickman)
   Solo blocks in a career (6, Naomi Hickman)
   NCAA Tournaments played in a career (5, Naomi Hickman)
   Fewest Attack Errors in a set (1, Team, 3rd set)
   Digs in a set (29, Team, 2nd set)
   Fewest Points allowed in a set (13, Team, 3rd set)

• Creighton is in search of the program's third Sweet 16, and first since defeating host Kansas in 2016 in Lawrence. CU's first Sweet 16 trip came after winning at North Carolina in 2015.
   Kansas is also in search of its third Sweet 16, having qualified in 2013 (with a win vs. Creighton) and 2015. That 2015 KU club reached the Final Four...which was played in Omaha.
   The Creighton/Kansas winner will face the winner of the Pittsburgh sub-Regional. National No. 3 seed and host Pitt (26-3) opens the NCAA Tournament on Friday vs. UMBC (19-11), while Towson (26-4) squares off against Penn State (20-10).
   A time and site for the Regional semifinal will be announced late Saturday night and begin next Thursday.

Volleyball Renews Rivalry vs. Kansas With Sweet 16 Berth Up For Grabs

Players Mentioned

Ellie Bolton

Abby Bottomley

Keeley Davis

Naomi Hickman

Abbey Milner

Kiana Schmitt

Norah Sis

Ally Van Eekeren

Kendra Wait

Annika Welty

Jaela Zimmerman

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