Friday, November 25
Omaha, Neb.
7:00 PM
Creighton University
vs
Xavier (Semifinals)
#15 Volleyball Hosts BIG EAST Championship; Opens Play on Friday
11/22/2022 3:30:00 PM | Volleyball
Creighton is the second seet and will meet the Butler/Xavier winner
2022 BIG EAST Championship • Presented by JEEP
Match #30: Xavier or Butler at #15 Creighton • Friday, Nov. 25 • 7:00 p.m. • Omaha, Neb.
| LIVE VIDEO ($) | FLOSPORTS INFO | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE STATS | CU NOTES (PDF) |
This Week
The postseason beckons for No. 15 Creighton (25-4, 17-1 BIG EAST) as the nine-time defending BIG EAST regular-season champion Bluejays host the BIG EAST Championship, presented by JEEP, this weekend.
Newly expanded to six teams, the tournament gets underway on Wednesday at 1 p.m. when fourth-seeded St. John's (19-12, 10-8 BIG EAST) takes on fifth-seeded Connecticut (16-13, 10-8 BIG EAST).
The second quarterfinal will take place at 4 p.m. when third-seeded Xavier (18-10, 11-7 BIG EAST) squares off with sixth-seeded Butler (16-14, 10-8 BIG EAST).
After taking a day off for Thanksgiving, play resumes on Friday at 4 p.m. when top-seeded and No. 14 Marquette (26-2, 17-1 BIG EAST) faces the winner of Wednesday's 1 p.m. quarterfinal between St. John's and Connecticut.
Second-seeded Creighton hits the floor on Friday at 7 p.m. when it takes on the victor of Wednesday's 4 p.m. quarterfinal between Xavier and Butler.
D.J. Sokol Arena (2,500) in Omaha, Neb., will host the action.
How To Watch
The BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinals and semifinals will air on FloSports. Jon Schriner and Shannon Smolinski will be on the call on Wednesday, while Bob Brainerd and Jill Dorsey Hall take over for Saturday's semifinals.
More information about discounted subscriptions to FloSports programming can be found at http://GoCreighton.com/FloSports.
Saturday's championship match will be televised on FS2 and be broadcasted by Bob Brainerd and Jill Dorsey Hall. That match ill be streamed on http://FoxSports.com/live.
How To Listen
Creighton's semifinal match webcast will air on KZOT (1180 The Zone), with Jon Schriner and Shannon Smolinski. Schriner and Smolinski would also call Saturday's match on KZOT (1180 The Zone) should Creighton advance to the final.
Audio from CU's match(es) will be streamed at http://GoCreighton.com/listen1180.
Live Stats Information
All matches of the BIG EAST Tournament will have free live stats. The link to each is also on the GoCreighton.com volleyball schedule page.
Scouting #15 Creighton
Ranked 15th nationally, Creighton is 25-4 this season after going 17-1 to clinch a share of a ninth straight BIG EAST regular-season title. The lone losses have come to then-No. 16 Kentucky (3-1 on Sept. 3), to then-No. 2 Nebraska (3-2 on Sept. 7), at current No. 22 Rice (3-2 on Sept. 18) and to No. 16 Marquette (3-0 on Nov. 19).
The Bluejays lost just nine sets in league play all season and had a program-record stretch of 29 straight set wins snapped last Saturday at Marquette.
Creighton owns wins over a boatload of NCAA Tournament regulars, including No. 16 Marquette, No. 25 USC, Iowa State, Kansas State, Florida State, Northern Iowa and Wichita State.
Sophomore OH Norah Sis (4.19 kps., 2.48 dps.) was named BIG EAST Player of the Year after a standout season that saw her top the BIG EAST in kills per set and points per set this year.
Senior MB Kiana Schmitt owns 2.29 kills per set on .323 hitting and was named All-BIG EAST. She led all players with 74 blocks in BIG EAST action this fall.
As if that wasn't enough, OH Ava Martin (2.38 kps.) has taken her game to another level in league play, hitting .309 and averaging 2.91 kills per set against conference competition to earn BIG EAST Freshman of the Week accolades four times in addition to BIG EAST Freshman of the Year acclaim.
Quarterbacking the Bluejay offense is sophomore S Kendra Wait (11.04 aps., 3.22 dps., .355%), a two-time all-BIG EAST choice.
Other seniors to keep an eye on include libero Allison Whitten (2,237 career digs), OH Keeley Davis (CU record 148 aces) and RS/S Jazz Schmidt (.454 hitting % in league play). Davis has led the BIG EAST in aces per set each of the past two years.
Creighton averages 14.37 kills, 1.60 aces, 16.74 digs and 2.06 blocks per set while hitting .267 as a team.
Scouting Xavier
Xavier is 18-10 on the season and finished third in the BIG EAST with an 11-7 mark despite closing with two straight losses. The Musketeers are 8-2 in five-set matches this season.
Missouri State transfer Brooklyn Cink (3.42 kps., .266%) leads the Musketeer offense, with Delaney Hogan (2.39 kps., .324%) and Anna Taylor (2.08 kps.) also average multiple kills per set.
All-BIG EAST setter Carrigan O'Reilly (8.98 aps., 2.46 dps., 1.51 kps.) owns four career triple-doubles, and Lucia Corsaro (4.08 dps.) owns the team lead in digs.
The Musketeers average 13.06 kills, 1.19 aces, 16.13 digs and 1.73 blocks per set on .239 hitting.
This Season vs. Xavier
Creighton swept Xavier (25-9, 25-17, 25-16) on Sept. 28th in Omaha in the only meeting with the Musketeers this fall.
Ava Martin hit .684 with 14 kills in 19 swings, Norah Sis (13 kills, 10 digs) contributed a double-double and Keeley Davis served a career-high five aces to pace the Bluejays. CU hit a season-best .381 in the win.
The Musketeers hit just .059 and were paced by seven kills by Brooklyn Cink.
Series History vs. Xavier
Creighton is 22-0 all-time against Xavier, with all the matches having occurred since 2013. Thirteen of the last 15 meetings have been 3-0 CU sweeps, but the two exceptions were 3-2 Creighton wins in Omaha in 2018 and the spring of 2021.
Thanks in part to a 3-0 record in league tourney action against the Musketeers, Creighton has more wins against Xavier (22) than any other team since joining the BIG EAST.
Creighton's victory on Oct. 5, 2013 in Cincinnati was the program's first BIG EAST win in history.
Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 22-0 vs. Xavier, and she is 16-0 against Christy Pfeffenberger.
Scouting Butler
Butler is 16-14 this season and tied for fourth in the BIG EAST with a 10-8 league record. The Bulldogs bring a three-match win streak into the league championships after saving seven match points to win a 24-22 fifth set vs. UConn on Sunday.
Mariah Grunze (3.32 kps.), Megan Sheridan (2.32 kps.) and Amina Shackelford (2.97 kps., 0.94 bps.) lead the team in kills per set.
Cora Taylor (9.34 aps.) tops the club in assists and two-time BIG EAST Libero of the Year Jaymeson Kinley (5.42 dps.) leads the BIG EAST in digs per set.
The Bulldogs average 12.16 kills, 1.12 aces, 15.96 digs and 2.37 blocks per set on .186 hitting.
This Season vs. Butler
Creighton swept Butler (25-15, 25-16, 25-17) on Sept. 30th in Omaha in the lone meeting this season.
Ava Martin hit .500 and had 14 kills in the win, while Kendra Wait added 38 assists, 11 digs and five blocks.
Mariah Grunze and Amina Shackelford both had 11 kills for the Bulldogs, and Jaymeson Kinley contributed a match-high 18 digs.
Series History vs. Butler
Creighton is 18-1 all-time against Butler, including five-set victories in three of the past 11 meetings.
Butler ruined Creighton's BIG EAST debut on Oct. 4, 2013 in Indianapolis, handing the Bluejays a four-set loss, but Creighton has won all 18 meetings since then.
The teams have never met in the BIG EAST Tournament.
Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 18-1 vs. Butler and head coach Sharon Clark.
Creighton Coaches
Creighton is coached by Kirsten Bernthal Booth (Truman State, 1997), who owns a 439-183 record in her 20th season with the Bluejays. She's led Creighton to nine straight BIG EAST titles (2014-21), and 10 league crowns in the last 11 years. Booth led the Bluejays to their first two Sweet 16's (2015, 2016) and first Elite Eight (2016) in program history. In 2016 she was recognized as VolleyballMag.com National Coach of the Year, BIG EAST Coach of the Year and AVCA East Region Coach of the Year. Booth was tabbed BIG EAST Coach of the Year for the third time in 2019.
The winningest coach in school history, Booth has taken Creighton to its only 11 NCAA Tournament bids in the program's modern history. She's also coached CU into the top-25 each of the last 11 seasons (including 2022), another program first.
Booth came to Creighton after going 112-41 in three years at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A native of Lincoln, Neb., Booth played volleyball at Truman State, where she was named conference MVP, an Academic All-American and Missouri's 1997 NCAA Woman of the Year. She ranked third in Division II history with 6,077 assists when she graduated.
Booth is assisted by Angie Oxley Behrens, Brian Rosen and Elise Fulcher.
BIG EAST Championship History
Creighton is 15-2 all-time in nine previous BIG EAST Championship appearances, including seven titles (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021).
Creighton is 8-1 in the semifinal round and 7-1 in the finals.
CU has never faced Butler at the BIG EAST Championship, but is 3-0 against Xavier in tourney action (2013, 2014, 2016).
Nine of Creighton's last 10 teams have reached the conference tournament title match, a stretch that started in 2012 when the Bluejays were members of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Creighton is 7-1 all-time at D.J. Sokol Arena at the BIG EAST Championships, including titles in 2015, 2018 and 2020, but did lose in the final in 2013.
At 15-2, Creighton is the only team in this weekend's BIG EAST Championship with a winning record in the event all-time. Butler is 0-2, Marquette is 11-12, UConn is 11-40, St. John's is 7-8 and Xavier is 1-4.
Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 15-2 in BIG EAST Championship action with seven titles. By comparison, the league's 10 other active coaches have a combined mark of 14-30 in the BIG EAST Championship with two titles, and none of the other 10 have a winning record in the event.
With a Win...
With a win on Friday, Creighton would...
- Improve to 26-4 on the season, tied for the sixth-most single-season wins in team history.
-Improve to 16-2 all-time in the BIG EAST Championship, including an 9-1 mark in the semifinal round.
- Kirsten Bernthal Booth would improve to 16-2 at the BIG EAST Championship, while the rest of the league's active coaches would be a combined 17-34 by the day's end.
- Improve to 2-1 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament play as the No. 2 seed, and 2-2 in all conference tournaments as a No. 2 seed.
- Advance to its 10th conference tournament title match in the past 11 seasons, a stretch that started with the 2012 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament final.
Booth's Haul
With seven titles, Kirsten Bernthal Booth is one of two volleyball coaches in league history to win six or more BIG EAST Championship titles.
The only other coach with six or more was Notre Dame's Debbie Brown (9).
BIG EAST Tournament Champions
Creighton Volleyball is seeking the school's 10th different BIG EAST Tournament title won by the school since joining the BIG EAST in the summer of 2013.
All but two of those titles have been won by the volleyball program.
With a title this weekend, Creighton can join Notre Dame (1996), Louisville (2010) and Marquette (2013) as the only programs to win the BIG EAST Tournament in men's soccer and women's volleyball in the same year.
Creighton's BIG EAST Tournament Titles (9)
Baseball (1): 2019
Men's Soccer (1): 2022
Volleyball (7): 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021
All-BIG EAST Quartet
Four members of the Creighton Volleyball program have earned All-BIG EAST honors, with Norah Sis being selected as Player of the Year and Ava Martin recognized as Freshman of the Year.
Sis joins Lydia Dimke (2016) and Jaali Winters (2018) as Creighton women named BIG EAST Player of the Year. Sis lived up to the hype as Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year as she led the league in kills per set (4.19) and points per set (4.61). The Papillion, Neb., product was a three-time BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and has single-match highs of 28 kills (vs. Florida State), 19 digs (vs. Florida State and at Rice) and nine blocks (vs. DePaul). Sis was also an All-BIG EAST selection in 2021, when she brought home Freshman of the Year accolades from the BIG EAST.
Martin becomes Creighton's fourth BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, joining Jaali Winters (2015) as well as current teammates Keeley Davis (2019) and Norah Sis (2021). A four-time BIG EAST Freshman of the Week this season, Martin ranked ninth in the BIG EAST in hitting percentage (.309) during league play and the Bluejays are 11-0 when the Overland Park, Kan., native owns eight or more kills.
One of the league's most improved players, Kiana Schmitt earns her first All-BIG EAST plaudit after a huge season that saw her top the conference in BIG EAST play with 1.23 blocks per set and ranking fourth with a .361 hitting percentage. Creighton is 19-0 all-time when the senior owns four or more blocks and 40-5 when the Waunakee, Wis., middle blocker generates six or more kills. The two-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week this fall had her best match in a 3-2 win vs. DePaul when she finished with career-highs of 16 kills and 13 blocks.
Kendra Wait was named All-BIG EAST for the second straight season after once again leading the BIG EAST in assists per set. The Gardner, Kan., native is the nation's only player averaging at least 11.00 assists and 3.00 digs per set and had career-highs with 59 assists and 36 digs vs. Florida State on Sept. 9. Wait leads the Bluejays with 17 double-doubles this fall.
This year marks the 10th time in as many years as a member of the BIG EAST that Creighton has had multiple all-conference selections, and eighth straight season with three or more First Team selections.
Back For More (Awards)
Last season Norah Sis was named Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Championships and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by fellow Bluejay returnees Jaela Zimmerman and Kendra Wait.
No player has been named Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Championship multiple times since Creighton's Jaali Winters (2016, 2018), and no player has won the award in back-to-back seasons since Notre Dame's Jaimie Lee in 1996 and 1997.
As The Second Seed
Creighton is the No. 2 seed for a conference tournament for just the third time in team history.
The Bluejays were the No. 2 seed in the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, where it was upset by No. 3 seed Northern Iowa in five sets in Wichita, Kan.
Creighton's only BIG EAST Tournament as a No. 2 seed came in its first year in the league in 2013, where it defeated thired-seeded Xavier in four sets before falling to top-seeded Marquette in four sets. Both of those matches took place inside D.J. Sokol Arena.
The BIG EAST Championship has been won by the top seed eight of the last nine years, and the No. 1 seed has also gone 17-1 in its last 18 games.
X Marks The Spot
Creighton owns 22 straight matches against Xavier, its best streak against any team.
Most Consecutive Match Wins Over One Team
Wins Opponent Dates
22 Xavier 2013-Present
21 DePaul 2013-Present
19 Southern Illinois 2003-11
19 Georgetown 2013-Present
18 Butler 2013-Present
16 Indiana State 2005-Present
Nine In A Row
Creighton clinched a share of its ninth straight BIG EAST regular-season title last weekend with a win at DePaul.
With its 2022 title, Creighton became the first team in BIG EAST volleyball history to win nine straight regular-season titles. The previous record had been seven by Notre Dame from 1999-2005.
The Bluejay volleyball team is also the first Creighton program in any sport to win nine or more straight league titles, surpassing the five in a row by the men's soccer program (1992-96).
Champions Among Champions
Since the start of the 2012 season, Creighton, Texas and Western Kentucky are the nation's only schools to have won nine conference regular-season titles (entering 2022). All but one of Creighton's nine crowns (entering 2022) were outright titles, whereas Texas shared one title and WKU shared five.
Creighton has also won eight conference tournament titles since 2012, tied for the most in the nation with Dayton and Western Kentucky.
Most Conference Titles 2012-2021
(Columns Don't Include 2022)
Regular-Season League Tournament
9 (1 shared) Creighton 8 Creighton
9 (1) Texas 8 Dayton
9 (5) Western Kentucky 8 Western Kentucky
8 BYU 7 Fairfield
8 (1) Colorado State 6 LIU
8 Fairfield 6 American
The. Best.
No matter how you slice it, Creighton and Marquette have dominated BIG EAST Volleyball since 2013.
Stat CU MU Everyone Else
BIG EAST Reg.-Season Titles 9 3 0
BIG EAST Play Win Percentage .917 .830 .408
BIG EAST Tourney TItles 7 1 1
BIG EAST Player of the Year 3 5 3
BIG EAST Libero of the Year 2 0 8
BIG EAST Freshman of the Year 4 3 4
BIG EAST Coach of the Year 3 2 5
AVCA All-Americans* 6 2 0
AVCA H.M. All-Americans 14 7 14
AVCA Region Freshman of Year 3 1 2
AVCA Region Coach of Year 3 0 2
CoSIDA Academic All-Americans 5 3 0
*First/Second/Third Teams only
Thorn In Marquette's Side
Marquette is 234-71 since the start of the 2013 season, but just 5-21 in that time against Creighton.
In other words, the Golden Eagles own a .192 winning percentage against Creighton (5-21) compared to a .821 mark (230-50) against everyone else.
No other team has beaten Marquette more than five times in the past decade (2013-22), with in-state rival Wisconsin (5) next-closest. Among BIG EAST teams, Xavier owns four wins to top those schools not named Creighton.
If you wanted to break it down to just the past five seasons, Marquette is 2-11 against Creighton (.154) and 116-13 (.899) against everyone else.
BIG EAST'S Best
Since the reconfiguration of the BIG EAST in the summer of 2013, Creighton, Marquette and St. John's are the only teams to win any sort of BIG EAST volleyball title.
Marquette won the regular-season and tournament title in 2013, while Creighton swept both titles in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. CU won the 2019 regular-season crown, while St. John's upset nationally-ranked Creighton and Marquette to bring home the 2019 tournament title. In 2020, Creighton won the Midwest Division regular-season title, while St. John's claimed the East Division crown. In 2021, Creighton and Marquette shared the regular-season title and CU won the tournament title. Both Creighton and Marquette also shared the 2022 regular-season title.
Below is a look at the record of each BIG EAST team since league realignment in 2013:
BIG EAST VB Standings Since 2013 (thru 11/22)
BIG EAST only All matches
Team (NCAA Bids) W L W L
Creighton (9) 154 14 252 64
Marquette (8) 137 28 235 71
Xavier 97 69 149 137
Butler 90 78 157 137
Villanova (1) 84 84 155 134
St. John's (1) 79 89 171 137
Seton Hall (1) 71 96 143 156
DePaul 45 123 109 173
Georgetown 35 125 86 186
Connecticut# 27 17 44 31
Providence* 27 125 94 165
*Providence rejoined the league for volleyball in 2014 and
its 2013 overall record (12-20) is not included above.
#Connecticut rejoined the league in 2020 and
its record from 2013-19 (96-121) is not included above.
The Avengers
During its nine-year run of BIG EAST Tournament titles from 2014-22, Creighton has just 10 regular-season losses. In nearly every case, Creighton would avenge that loss with a league tournament victory over the opponent that beat them previously.
This year's Creighton team owns one league loss, and could have a chance for revenge against Marquette in the final.
Date Loss Tourney Rematch Result
10/10/14 at Seton Hall
11/23/14 Seton Hall W 3-1
10/30/15 at Villanova W 3-0
10/05/17 at Marquette W 3-2
11/17/17 at Villanova W 3-0
11/08/19 at Villanova Didn't Meet
02/06/20 Marquette W 3-1
10/01/21 at St. John's Didn't Meet
10/16/21 at Connecticut Didn't Meet
11/19/22 at #16 Marquette Possibly Saturday?
Sweep Revenge
Creighton doesn't get swept very often...in fact last Saturday's 3-0 loss at Marquette was the first time the Bluejays were swept since Sept. 8, 2021 vs. No. 3 Nebraska.
Creighton answered that loss with eight straight victories.
The last time Creighton was swept in a BIG EAST match came Feb. 6, 2021 when No. 25 Marquette handed the Jays a 3-0 loss. CU responded with four straight wins.
Last Saturday was just the seventh time in 168 BIG EAST regular-season matches that Creighton has been swept.
Break Out The Brooms
Prior to last Saturday's 3-0 loss in Milwaukee, Creighton had won 29 straight sets over the course of 33 days.
It was the longest streak of sets won in program history, four more than the previous high. Three of CU's longest eight sets won streaks have now been snapped by Marquette.
Creighton has won 14 straight sets inside D.J. Sokol Arena, where it returns home this weekend.
Consecutive Sets Won
Set Wins Dates Snapped By
29 Oct. 16, 2022-Present at #16 Marquette
25 Oct. 22-Nov. 20, 2016 Villanova
25 Oct. 26-Nov. 23, 2018 #16 Marquette
22 Nov. 7-Dec. 2, 2021 Kansas
19 Oct. 12-Nov. 3, 2019 at Villanova
15 Oct. 7-21, 2016 at Marquette
15 Sept. 28-Oct. 13, 2018 at Villanova
15 Sept. 11-24, 2021 at Butler
Top 25 History
Creighton is 170-39 all-time when playing as a ranked team, and also 17-23 all-time against ranked teams when ranked itself. That mark improves to 2-1 when both Creighton and its opponent are ranked in the top 10.
Since the start of the 2012 season, 38 of Creighton's 68 losses have come against ranked teams. In that same period, Creighton is 261-30 against unranked teams. Creighton has won all but two of its past 92 home matches over unranked teams and all but nine of its last 119 matches at all sites against unranked teams.
After a total of three total top-25 wins from 1994-2014, Creighton has earned at least one top-25 win each of the last eight seasons (2015-22). That includes a record-tying four top-25 victories in 2019.
Creighton is 22-84 all-time against ranked teams and 12 of those top 25 wins all-time have come against either Marquette (7) or Kentucky (5).
The highest ranked teams that Creighton has ever beaten at any site were No. 3 Washington (8/26/17 in Seattle) and No. 3 Kentucky (9/4/21 in Lexington). CU's highest-ranked opponent it has defeated at home was a 3-1 win over then-No. 9 Marquette on Nov. 22, 2019.
Ranked vs. Ranked (CU is 17-23)
Home: 7-9 Away: 5-8 Neutral: 5-6
Date Winner Loser CU Score
11/19/12 #11 Minnesota #21 Creighton 1-3
08/30/13 #25 Creighton #13 BYU 3-1
09/14/13 #11 UCLA #24 Creighton 1-3
09/16/13 #7 Hawaii #23 Creighton 2-3
08/30/14 #22 Kansas #23 Creighton 1-3
09/03/16 #23 Kentucky #22 Creighton 0-3
12/02/16 #21 Creighton #4 Kansas 3-2
12/09/16 #21 Creighton #17 Michigan 3-2
12/10/16 #5 Texas #21 Creighton 0-3
08/26/17 #9 Creighton #3 Washington 3-1
09/01/17 #7 Creighton #13 Kentucky 3-0
09/02/17 #18 USC #7 Creighton 0-3
09/08/17 #17 Purdue #9 Creighton 1-3
09/09/17 #9 Creighton #7 Kansas 3-0
09/16/17 #19 Iowa State #8 Creighton 2-3
12/12/17 #12 Michigan St. #15 Creighton 1-3
08/24/18 #13 Creighton #5 Kentucky 3-2
08/25/18 #10 USC #13 Creighton 2-3
09/06/18 #7 Nebraska #14 Creighton 2-3
09/15/18 #8 Illinois #10 Creighton 1-3
09/23/18 #10 Creighton #21 Marquette 3-0
10/26/18 #10 Creighton #18 Marquette 3-1
11/24/18 #9 Creighton #16 Marquette 3-1
12/01/18 #22 Washington #9 Creighton 0-3
08/30/19 #2 Nebraska #18 Creighton 1-3
08/31/19 #20 Baylor #18 Creighton 0-3
09/06/19 #23 Creighton #12 Kentucky 3-1
09/07/19 #23 Creighton #15 USC 3-1
09/14/19 #12 Washington #17 Creighton 1-3
10/12/19 #13 Creighton #10 Marquette 3-2
11/22/19 #12 Creighton #9 Marquette 3-1
12/07/19 #7 Minnesota #15 Creighton 2-3
02/05/21 #19 Creighton #25 Marquette 3-2
02/06/21 #25 Marquette #19 Creighton 0-3
09/08/21 #3 Nebraska #19 Creighton 0-3
09/02/22 #17 Creighton #25 USC 3-1
09/03/22 #16 Kentucky #17 Creighton 1-3
09/07/22 #2 Nebraska #17 Creighton 2-3
10/14/22 #21 Creighton #16 Marquette 3-2
11/19/22 #16 Marquette #11 Creighton 0-3
Block Record Falls
Creighton set a school-record for total blocks and block assists the last time it met DePaul on Oct. 16.
Creighton's 22.0 blocks broke the record of 21.0 done twice before (in 2003 and 2012), and were the most by any BIG EAST team since 2018.
Creighton's 40 block assists were two more than the previous mark set in 2009 and 2012, and eight more than the previous mark for a five-set match done three times.
Individually, Kiana Schmitt's 13 total blocks were the most by a Bluejay since Kelli Browning in 2012, and tied for fifth-most ever by a Bluejay.
Most Total Blocks, Individual
17 Ashley Williams (3-14) vs. Wichita State (5s) 10-10-03
16 Ashley Williams (4-12) vs. Southern Illinois (5s) 9-19-03
15 Kelli Browning (0-15) vs. Tulsa (4s) 9-8-12
14 Jessica Houts (0-14) vs. Lipscomb (4s) 9-4-09
13 Laurel Sanford (1-12) vs. Southern Illinois (5s) 10-21-11
13 Kiana Schmitt (1-12) vs. DePaul (5s) 10-16-22
Most Total Blocks, Team
22 vs. DePaul (2-40) 10-16-22
21 vs. Southern Illinois (8-26) (5s) 9-19-03
21 vs. Tulsa (2-38) (4s) 9-8-12
20 vs. Lipscomb (1-38) (4s) 9-4-09
20 vs. Indiana State (3-34) (3s) 10-24-09
20 at Kansas (4-32) (5s) 9-19-12
Most Block Assists, Team
40 vs. DePaul (5s) 10-16-22
38 vs. Lipscomb (4s) 9-4-09
38 vs. Tulsa (4s) 9-8-12
36 vs. Southern Illinois (4s) 10-27-12
35 at Bradley (4s) 11-19-05
Against The BIG EAST
Since the BIG EAST was restructured in 2013, Creighton owns a record better than .500 against each of the other teams currently in the BIG EAST.
The Bluejays own 169 wins against BIG EAST competition (including BIG EAST Championship play) since 2013, 27 more wins than Marquette for most in the league.
CU still has not lost to four league foes (DePaul, Georgetown, Providence, Xavier) since joining the BIG EAST, and Marquette (5), Villanova (3), Seton Hall (3) and St. John's (3) are the only BIG EAST programs to top the Bluejays multiple times since 2013.
Opponent Reg. Season BE Tourney Total
Butler 18-1 - 18-1
Connecticut 2-1 1-0 3-1
DePaul 20-0 1-0 21-0
Georgetown 18-0 - 18-0
Marquette 16-4 5-1 21-5
Providence 15-0 - 15-0
Seton Hall 15-3 2-0 17-3
St. John's 16-2 0-1 16-3
Villanova 15-3 3-0 18-3
Xavier 19-0 3-0 22-0
Total 154-14 15-2 169-16
Five For Fighting
Creighton won back-to-back five set home matches against Marquette and DePaul on Oct. 14 and Oct. 16. Incredibly, it was the first time in 10 years of regular-season BIG EAST play that Creighton had played back-to-back five setters in conference matches at any site.
The last time it happened was CU's final two league matches as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference in 2012 when it won road matches at Wichita State and Missouri State.
Ironically, Creighton honored the league champion 2012 Volleyball team that weekend during its victory over Marquette.
Creighton had not won multiple five-set home matches on the same weekend since October of 2010 when it beat Missouri State and Wichita State on consecutive days.
Depth, Depth and More Depth
Only nine active players throughout the 11-team BIG EAST have at least 800 career kills, 500 career digs and 100 career blocks, and five of those women are Creighton Bluejays.
800 Kills, 500 Digs, 100 Career Blocks, BIG EAST
Name, School Kills Digs Blocks
Rachele Rastelli, SJU 1,832 607 400
Caylee Parker, UConn 1,682 1,211 208
Bethany Clapp, CU 1,214 879 165
Brooklyn Cink, XU 1,085 711 219
Jazz Schmidt, CU 1,003 728 205
Jaela Zimmerman, CU 1,000 796 165
Keeley Davis, CU 961 838 155
Jasmine Davis, UConn 860 810 145
Norah Sis, CU 854 591 114
Streak Reached 17
Before last Saturday, Creighton had won 17 straight matches, its 10th double-digit winning streak since 2012. The win streak was tied for the third-longest in program history.
When Kirsten Bernthal Booth was hired, the Jays had never had a win streak longer than five. Each of the 17 longest win streaks in program history have come under Booth's guidance.
Most Consecutive Wins, Creighton History
Wins Dates Snapped By
23 Sept. 23-Dec. 9, 2016 at #5 Texas, 3-0
21 Sept. 21 - Nov. 30, 2018 #22 Washington, 3-0
17 Sept. 29-Nov. 30, 2012 at #11 Minnesota, 3-1
17 Sept. 23 - Nov. 18, 2022 at #16 Marquette, 3-0
14 Sept. 19-Nov. 3, 2019 at Villanova, 3-0
14 Oct. 17-Dec. 2, 2021 Kansas, 3-1
12 Sept. 20-Oct. 25, 2015 at Villanova, 3-2
11 Oct. 11-Nov. 21, 2014 Seton Hall, 3-0
11 Oct. 6-Nov. 12, 2017 at Villanova, 3-0
10 Oct. 31-Dec. 5, 2015 vs. #2 USC, 3-1
Spectacular Sis
Norah Sis owns 10 or more kills in each of Cu's last 12 matches. That ranks tied for eighth in program history. With 10 kills on both Friday and Saturday, she could tie Kelly Goc for fifth place.
Consecutive Matches, 10 or More Kills
58 Leah Ratzlaff, Sept. 13, 2003-Sept. 9, 2005
21 Jaali Winters, Oct. 6, 2015 - Aug. 28, 2016
19 JoDe Cieloha, Sept. 26-Nov. 21, 1997
18 Jaela Zimmerman, Nov. 16, 2019 - March 27, 2021
14 Kelly Goc, Sept. 8-Oct. 19, 2007
13 JoDe Cieloha, Sept. 7-Oct. 18, 1996
13 Jaali Winters, Nov. 12, 2016-Sept. 1, 2017
12 Amanda Cvejdlik, Aug. 25-Sept. 19, 2006
12 Norah Sis, Oct. 7, 2022-Present
Ava Again?
Creighton's Ava Martin was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this fall on Nov. 14th.
Martin had 11 kills, six digs and an ace in Creighton's 3-0 victory against St. John's, finishing the week with averages of 3.67 kills, 2.00 digs and 0.33 aces per set.
This is the fourth time in the past eight weeks that Martin has been honored, having previously been recognized on Sept. 26, Oct. 3 and Oct. 17.
Martin's senior teammates Jazz Schmidt and Keeley Davis also landed a spot on the BIG EAST's Weekly Honor Roll.
Seniors Leading The Way
Creighton recognized seniors Emily Bressman, Bethany Clapp, Keeley Davis, Jazz Schmidt, Allison Whitten and Jaela Zimmerman following its Nov. 13th win vs. Seton Hall.
Clapp (Incarnate Word), Schmidt (Palm Beach Atlantic) and Whitten (Morehead State) are all graduate transfers in their first year in the Bluejay program.
Bressman has missed all of this season due to injury but owns 38 kills, 138 digs and four aces in her career as a defensive specialist and outside hitter.
Davis is a two-time All-Region and All-BIG EAST selection who burst onto the scene in 2019 as the league's Freshman of the Year. She owns 961 kills, 838 digs and ranks first in CU history with 148 aces.
Zimmerman is a three-time All-BIG EAST choice, two-time AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and a four-time event MVP. She enters this weekend with 1,000 kills, 796 digs and 77 aces.
All told, the group has combined for 5,616 digs, 4,234 kills, 2,000 assists, 690 blocks and 554 service aces at the collegiate level.
Attendance Update
Creighton enters the week ranked 10th nationally in total home attendance (35,814) and 15th in fans per home match (2,558).
Creighton has led the BIG EAST in average home attendance in every non-COVID year since joining the league.
Creighton's 35,814 home fans this fall are already second-most in program history. The 2,558 fans per home match are also second-most ever.
Most Home Fans, Season
Rk. Fans Dates Year
1. 47,632 17 2018
2. 35,814 14 2022
3. 30,211 14 2021
4. 29,905 18 2015
5. 25,615 13 2019
Highest Home Attendance Average, Season
Average Rk. Fans Dates Year
1. 2,802 47,632 17 2018
2. 2,558 35,814 14 2022
3. 2,158 30,211 14 2021
4. 1,970 25,615 13 2019
5. 1,873 24,346 13 2017
Decade of Dominance
Ten years in the BIG EAST gives Creighton a pretty good set of data to compare its yearly performance in league matches. Here's how the 2022 campaign compares to previous seasons:
Creighton's Year-By-Year BIG EAST Stats
Year W-L KPS HIT% SAPS DPS BPS
2013 12-4 13.75 .213 1.00 16.20 3.13
2014 16-2 14.89 .242 1.30 17.09 2.86
2015 17-1 15.02 .271 1.33 16.97 2.47
2016 18-0 15.37 .317 1.69 16.08 2.41
2017 16-2 14.81 .302 1.31 16.62 2.05
2018 18-0 14.45 .294 2.13 15.67 2.38
2019 17-1 14.61 .269 2.07 15.80 2.25
2020 7-1 12.93 .249 1.30 14.17 2.75
2021 16-2 13.95 .242 1.82 18.02 2.86
2022 17-1 14.80 .299 1.85 16.10 2.33
Sis Is Rolling
Sophomore Norah Sis owns 419 kills this season and 854 in her career.
The 854 kills is second-most ever by a Bluejay in their first two seasons, trailing only Jaali Winters' 994.
The 419 kills this season ranks fourth-most ever by a Bluejay sophomore. That record of 516 is held by Leah Ratzlaff.
Most Kills, After 2 Seasons at Creighton
Kills Yr1 Yr2 Name Year
994 546 448 Jaali Winters 2015 & 2016
854 435 419 Norah Sis 2021 & 2022
769 341 428 Melissa Walsh 1998 & 1999
733 270 463 Alicia Runge 2009 & 2010 (Jr. & Sr.)
696 180 516 Leah Ratzlaff 2002 & 2003
653 267 386 Jessica Houts 2005 & 2006
640 225 415 Amanda Cvejdlik 2005 & 2006
Most Kills, Creighton Sophomores
Kills Name Year
516 Leah Ratzlaff 2003
448 Jaali Winters 2016
428 Melissa Walsh 1999
419 Norah Sis 2022
415 Amanda Cvejdlik 2006
390 Taryn Kloth 2016
386 Jessica Houts 2006
376 Leah McNary 2012
350 Kelli Browning 2012
No Losers Here
Currently 25-4, Creighton has been nearly as good as anyone at avoiding losses in recent seasons.
BYU, Creighton, Louisville, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Texas, Towson, Western Kentucky and Wisconsin are the nation's only teams with five losses or less in the 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons.
If you go back two years more, the nation's only teams to lose six times or less in the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons are BYU, Creighton, Pittsburgh and Texas.
President Elect Booth
Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth has been voted the President-Elect of the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
Booth will begin her service on January 1, 2023 then become AVCA President in 2024. She will join the 17-member AVCA Board of Directors, which includes elected representatives, appointed voting members for Diversity Development and Legislation, and non-voting members for Education and Awards.
Booth will serve as President-Elect in 2023, be President in 2024 and 2025, and then finish out her term as Past President in 2026.
Booth is in her 20th season as the head women's volleyball coach at Creighton.
Putting The 0 In October And November
Creighton finished the month of October with a perfect 8-0 record, which included five sweeps and three 3-2 victories.
It's the fourth time in the past six fall seasons that Creighton has been unbeaten in October.
All told since October of 2014 Creighton is 65-5 in the 10th month of the year.
Creighton's been awfully good in the month of November too. Since the start of 2014, CU is 59-5 in the 11th month of the year.
Creighton has won 37 straight October home matches (since 10/15/11) and 31 consecutive home matches in November (since 11/23/14).
20/20 Vision
Creighton earned its 10th season of 20 or more wins in the past 11 seasons with a 3-0 win at St. John's on Oct. 30th. The only exception in that span was the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season (when CU only played 16 matches).
All 13 of Creighton's 20-win seasons since its 1994 reinstatement have come under the leadership of Kirsten Bernthal Booth. Before her arrival, CU had never won more than 16 matches in a single season.
Most Matches Won, Creighton Season
Year MP W L Pct. Coach
1. 2021 35 31 4 .886 Booth
2. 2012 33 29 4 .879 Booth
2018 34 29 5 .853 Booth
2016 36 29 7 .806 Booth
5. 2015 36 27 9 .750 Booth
6. 2017 33 26 7 .788 Booth
7. 2022 29 25 4 .862 Booth
2019 31 25 6 .806 Booth
2014 34 25 9 .735 Booth
10. 2013 32 23 9 .719 Booth
11. 2006 31 21 10 .677 Booth
2007 31 21 10 .667 Booth
2010 31 21 12 .636 Booth
14. 2004 29 18 11 .621 Booth
2008 27 18 9 .667 Booth
League Streak Reached 28
Before its Nov. 19 loss at No. 16 Marquette, Creighton had won 28 consecutive regular-season BIG EAST matches. That tied the program's second-longest win streak ever in league play.
During CU's 28-match league win streak, the Bluejays have dropped just eight sets, winning 84-of-92 sets.
Consecutive Regular-Season League Wins
Wins Dates Snapped By League
31 Nov. 18, 2017 - Nov. 3, 2019 at Villanova, 3-0 BIG EAST
28 Oct. 31, 2015 - Sept. 30, 2017 at Marquette, 3-0 BIG EAST
28 Oct. 17, 2021- Nov. 18, 2022 at #16 Marquette, 3-0 BIG EAST
14 Sept. 29, 2012 - End of 2012 Never (left MVC) MVC
12 Sept. 20-Oct. 25, 2015 at Villanova, 3-2 BIG EAST
11 Oct. 11-Nov. 21, 2014 Seton Hall, 3-0 BIG EAST
11 Oct. 6-Nov. 12, 2017 at Villanova, 3-0 BIG EAST
9 Nov. 4, 2005-Sept. 30, 2006 Northern Iowa, 3-2 MVC
Dealing Up Aces
Keeley Davis had nine aces in the final regular-season home weekend of her career (Nov. 11-13), helping her break a 21-year old school record for career aces that had been held by Molly Moran.
Davis reached 100 career aces in her 82nd career contest on Aug. 26 vs. Wichita State, which ranks third-fastest in Bluejay history.
Davis is the first player in Creighton history with multiple seasons of 50 or more service aces.
It's also worth noting that three of Davis' teammates entered the year having owned more than 100 career aces, though they've done so at other schools. Bethany Clapp owned 103 aces in 97 matches at Incarnate Word, Jazz Schmidt had 103 aces in 96 matches at Division II Palm Beach Atlantic and Allison Whitten had 103 aces in 115 contests at Morehead State.
Service Aces, Career
Name Sets No. Years
1. Keeley Davis 378 148 2019-Pr.
2. Molly Moran 341 145 1998-01
3. Melissa Weisensee 411 125 1994-97
4. Brittany Witt 471 122 2016-19
5. JoDe Cieloha 398 113 1994-97
6. Kate Elman 464 105 2012-15
7. Shelly Kapler 388 104 1996-99
8. Jaali Winters 494 101 2015-18
9. Madelyn Cole 225 93 2018-19
10. Carolyn Decker 300 89 2004-08
Creighton's Quickest Players To 100 Aces (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Molly Moran 73 08/31/01 vs. DePaul
Melissa Weisensee 77 11/01/96 Southern Illinois
Keeley Davis 82 08/26/22 vs. Wichita St.
JoDe Cieloha 85 09/06/97 at UNLV
Shelly Kapler 95 10/15/99 Bradley
Brittany Witt 107 10/05/19 Seton Hall
Kate Elman 120 11/15/15 Butler
Jaali Winters 135 11/17/18 Providence
Schmitt A Ki Player
Kiana Schmitt entered the 2022 season with three career matches (of 60 played) with 10 or more kills, but the senior already has 11 matches in double-figures this fall.
Schmitt owns a career-high with 16 kills vs. DePaul on Oct. 16.
Creighton is 40-5 all-time when Schmitt has six or more kills. CU is also 19-0 all-time when she owns four or more blocks.
Poll Road Ahead
Creighton has been ranked in each of the last 28 AVCA Top 25 polls. With little movement from week-to-week, however, CU is one of 19 teams to be ranked each of those polls, a group that includes Baylor, BYU, Creighton, Florida, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Pitt, Purdue, Stanford, Texas, Washington, Western Kentucky and Wisconsin.
Creighton has been ranked in all but six of the past 97 weeks the AVCA has put out a Top 25 poll.
Whitten Passes 500 Sets
Allison Whitten enters this weekend having appeared in 523 career sets, though the first 417 of those came at Morehead State from 2018-21.
By comparison, the only Bluejay in history to play in 500 or more sets was Lauren Smith, who appeared in a program-record 511 sets with the Jays from 2013-16. Last year Abby Bottomley completed her career with 517 sets played, including 403 at High Point.
Taking The Fifth
Creighton is 67-35 in five-set matches under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. That's impressive since Creighton had never finished a season with a winning record in fifth sets prior to Booth's arrival.
Creighton has won 18 of its last 25 true road matches to go five sets, including wins in 2012 over league rivals Northern Iowa, Wichita State and Missouri State, wins in 2013 at Denver and at Wichita State, wins in 2014 at Butler and at St. John's, a win at Georgetown in 2015, an NCAA Tournament win at No. 4 Kansas in 2016, 2017 victories at Butler, Georgetown and Marquette, a 2018 win at Butler, wins at UNI and No. 10 Marquette in 2019, at South Dakota in the 2020 campaign and at Omaha and UConn in 2022.
It's also worth noting that Creighton is 17-4 all-time in five-set home matches at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Creighton's five victories in five-set matches this season ties a program record also done in 2003, 2011 and 2015.
Below is a list of Creighton's record in five-set matches on a yearly basis:
Year Set 5 W-L Total W-L
1994 0-2 5-20
1995 0-2 11-19
1996 2-6 9-19
1997 3-5 15-13
1998 2-3 7-18
1999 3-3 13-15
2000 3-3 16-12
2001 1-1 14-13
2002 1-3 3-23
2003 5-1 12-18
2004 4-0 18-11
2005 3-1 16-14
2006 4-2 21-10
2007 2-0 21-10
2008 2-3 18-9
2009 1-4 14-17
2010 3-3 21-12
2011 5-2 17-14
2012 4-1 29-4
2013 3-2 23-9
2014 3-2 25-9
2015 5-2 27-9
2016 4-3 29-7
2017 4-1 26-7
2018 3-2 29-5
2019 2-1 25-6
2020 4-2 12-4
2021 1-1 31-4
2022 5-2 25-4
Total 82-63 532-335
Bouncing Back
The Creighton staff is quick to credit athletic performance coach Brad Schmidt for helping the team get stronger during the off-season and maintain that strength during the season.
Need evidence of that? Creighton has played seven five-set matches so far this season. Not only is Creighton 5-2 in five-setters this fall, but the Jays are also 7-0 this year in the contest after a five-setter.
Dating to last season, Creighton has won 12 straight matches following a five-set match and are 17-1 in the match following a five-setter since Aug. 25, 2018.
2-0 Better Than 0-2
Creighton is 364-11 (.971) all-time when leading a match 2-0, including a 307-5 mark (.984) under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. CU is 231-3 when up 2-0 dating to September of 2009, and 119-1 all-time at D.J. Sokol Arena when up 2-0 at the break.
Per RichKern.com, Division I teams that won the first two sets won 95.0 percent of their matches from 2009-18.
Conversely, the Jays are 17-204 (.077) all-time when trailing a match 0-2, and 15-105 (.125) under Booth.
One of those comebacks came on Oct. 7, 2022 at UConn, which was CU's first comeback win on the road in league play after trailing 0-2 since 2015. CU then overcame an 0-2 home deficit on Oct. 14, vs. No. 16 Marquette, the first such comeback against a ranked foe. Combined, the UConn and Marquette comebacks mark the first time in program history the team has posted multiple reverse sweeps in the same month.
Those 17 comebacks in program history from down 0-2 are listed below.
Date Opponent Sets 3-5 scores Coach
09/19/97 at Bradley 15-11, 15-13, 15-8 Wallace
10/01/99 at Drake 15-6, 17-15, 15-11 Wallace
09/03/04 vs. Montana 30-20, 30-21, 15-11 Booth
10/15/04 at Bradley 30-22, 30-23, 15-11 Booth
10/15/05 at So. Illinois 30-25, 30-24, 15-8 Booth
09/21/07 at No. Iowa 31-29, 30-26, 15-12 Booth
11/16/12 at Wichita St. 25-16, 25-20, 16-14 Booth
09/05/14 vs. No. Iowa 25-16, 25-22, 15-5 Booth
11/08/14 at Butler 25-16, 25-20, 15-13 Booth
09/20/15 Kansas State 25-23, 26-24, 15-13 Booth
10/09/15 DePaul 25-21, 25-12, 15-11 Booth
11/20/15 at Georgetown 30-28, 26-24, 15-7 Booth
10/13/17 Butler 25-21, 25-23, 15-9 Booth
10/18/18 Xavier 25-17, 25-17, 15-13 Booth
01/31/21 at So. Dakota 25-20, 25-23, 15-7 Booth
10/07/22 at UConn 25-15, 25-12, 15-13 Booth
10/14/22 #16 Marquette 25-19, 25-16, 15-8 Booth
Didn't Have To Wait Long
Creighton sophomore Kendra Wait became the ninth player in program history to reach 2,000 career sets when she did so on Oct. 16 vs. DePaul.
Wait needed 54 matches to reach the milestone, sixth-fastest in program history. The five women ahead of her combined to win First Team All-Conference honors nine times.
Wait reached 1,000 assists this season on Nov. 4 in CU's 24th match of the fall.
Creighton's Quickest Players To 2,000 Assists (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Korie Lebeda 43 09/22/06 Drake
Brittany Coleman 45 10/02/04 Southern Illinois
Kailey Reyes 49 09/01/00 at Iowa State
Lydia Dimke 52 10/13/17 Butler
Madelyn Cole 53 10/25/19 at Providence
Kendra Wait 54 10/16/22 DePaul
Megan Bober 55 11/05/10 at Wichita State
Melissa Weisensee 66 09/15/96 at UMKC
Michelle Sicner 109 11/23/14 Seton Hall
Single-Season Matches to 1,000 Assists
Name MP Opponent Year
Korie Lebeda 21 at Drake 2006
Brittany Coleman 22 at Southern Illinois 2004
Korie Lebeda 23 Missouri State 2005
Brittany Coleman 23 Northern Iowa 2003
Kailey Reyes 23 at Southern Illinois 1999
Melissa Weisensee 23 at Evansville 1996
Kailey Reyes 24 at Wichita State 2000
Melissa Weisensee 24 at Evansville 1997
Kendra Wait 24 Providence 2022
Kailey Reyes 25 Wichita State 2001
Korie Lebeda 25 Southern Illinois 2007
Korie Lebeda 26 Bradley 2008
Lydia Dimke 26 Xavier 2016
Madelyn Cole 26 at Seton Hall 2018
Megan Bober 27 Evansville 2010
Lydia Dimke 27 Georgetown 2017
Madelyn Cole 27 #9 Marquette 2019
Megan Bober 28 at Northern Iowa 2009
Megan Bober 28 at Wichita State 2012
Michelle Sicner 28 Xavier 2013
Kendra Wait 29 at Villanova 2021
Maggie Baumert 32 vs. Seton Hall 2014
105 Weeks As A Ranked Team
Creighton is ranked this week for the 105th time in program history. That's 43rd-most of all programs in NCAA history.
All 105 rankings have occurred since 2012 and under the direction of Kirsten Bernthal Booth.
Not Much Middle Ground
Of Creighton's last 23 matches, there's been seven five-set matches and 15 sweeps. Only one of those contests has been exactly four sets.
Creighton is 5-2 this year in five-set matches, 4-1 in four-setters and 15-1 in sweeps.
Creighton is averaging 18.63 digs per set and 14.17 assists per set in contests to go five sets this season. Kiara Reinhardt hits .349 in those matches, while Norah Sis averages 4.14 kills per set.
Creighton is 45-2 in its last 47 matches to last exactly three sets.
Welcome Back Jaela
Jaela Zimmerman made her 2022 debut on Sept. 30 when she checked in to serve set point in Creighton's 25-15 set one victory over Butler.
She made her second appearance on Oct. 8 on match point at Providence, and promptly dialed up her first ace of the season.
The pressure level upped a notch on Oct. 16 when she was inserted into the fifth set with the score tied at 7-all. She earned her first dig of the season immediately and served a 3-0 run as the Jays took the lead for good in the 15-11 win.
Zimmerman saw her first front row action of the season on Oct. 22 at Georgetown and earned her first kill of 2022 on Oct. 28 at Seton Hall, the 998th of her career.
A two-time AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and three-time All-BIG EAST selection, Zimmerman tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in Creighton's NCAA Tournament win vs. Ole Miss on Dec. 2, 2021 and underwent surgery five weeks later.
Jae-Z Plays The Hits
Jaela Zimmerman owns 1,000 kills, good for a tie for 14th in Creighton history. She reached the milestone in her 111th career match on Nov. 13 on her Senior Day vs. Seton Hall.
Career Kills
Name Sets No. Years
1. Jaali Winters 494 1,843 2015-18
2. Leah Ratzlaff 409 1,622 2002-05
3. Melissa Walsh 394 1,596 1998-01
4. Taryn Kloth 462 1,427 2015-18
5. Kelly Goc 394 1,414 2004-07
6. Jessica Houts 451 1,385 2005-09
7. JoDe Cieloha 398 1,375 1994-97
8. Leah McNary 458 1,257 2011-14
9. Marysa Wilkinson 499 1,183 2014-17
10. Lauren Smith 511 1,160 2013-16
11. Allie Oelke 445 1,126 2007-10
12. Kelli Browning 424 1,104 2011-14
13. Amanda Cvejdlik 343 1,029 2005-08
14. Shelly Kapler 388 1,000 1996-99
Jaela Zimmerman 355 1,000 2018-Pr.
Creighton's Quickest Players To 1,000 Career Kills
Name MP Date Opponent
Melissa Walsh 70 10/15/00 Eastern Illinois
Jaali Winters 73 08/25/17 vs. Saint Mary's
Leah Ratzlaff 76 10/22/04 Missouri State
JoDe Cieloha 83 09/13/97 at Drake
Kelly Goc 87 11/24/06 vs Northern Iowa
Jessica Houts 90 11/08/08 Illinois State
Leah McNary 96 09/12/14 Pepperdine
Amanda Cvejdlik 99 11/15/08 at Evansville
Shelly Kapler 103 11/18/99 vs. Missouri St.
Taryn Kloth 103 08/31/18 vs. NC State
Allie Oelke 107 10/09/10 Wichita State
Kelli Browning 110 10/26/14 DePaul
Jaela Zimmerman 111 11/13/22 Seton Hall
Lauren Smith 119 10/07/16 at Villanova
Marysa Wilkinson 120 09/30/17 at St. John's
Home Sweet Home
Creighton is in its 10th season as a member of the BIG EAST since joining the league in the summer of 2013.
Since then, the Bluejays are 90-4 in home matches against BIG EAST teams (83-3 in the regular-season, 7-1 in the BIG EAST Tournament).
Since November of 2014, Creighton is 74-1 inside D.J. Sokol Arena against BIG EAST teams, which includes a 68-1 league mark and a 6-0 mark in the conference tournament. The only setback (on Feb. 6, 2021 vs. Marquette) was played as a non-conference match, only to be flipped to a league contest 19 days later.
Put another way, since enrolling at Creighton in 2018, Bluejay fifth-year senior Jaela Zimmerman is 45-1 in home matches against BIG EAST teams, and 135-22 in sets.
Hall Call
Megan (Bober) Varasteh entered the Creighton Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday, Oct. 15th, at a banquet at Hilton Omaha.
Varasteh was part of the 54th class of inductees (along with Renae Sinkler-O'Gorman and Carol Ketcham) and gives the Creighton Athletics Hall of Fame 94 inductees, plus the 1991 Creighton Baseball Team. The Athletics Hall of Fame started in 1968 with the induction of Bluejay great Bob Gibson.
Varasteh starred as a member of the Creighton Volleyball program from 2008-12, becoming the program's first player in earn AVCA All-America honors multiple times. She became the volleyball program's first woman named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year as well as MVC Tournament MVP, helping the Bluejays to their first regular-season and conference tournament titles and a then-record 29 victories. She closed her career with a school-record 15 triple-doubles (second in MVC history) and as the only player in league history with at least 4,000 assists, 1,000 digs, 800 kills and 400 blocks.
She joined Melissa Walsh (2009), Korie Lebeda (2014) and Kelli Browning (2021) as the only Creighton Volleyball players to be inducted.
In addition to being named Creighton's Female Athlete of the Year, she was also recognized as the Carl M. Reinert, S.J., Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, repeated her spot on the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team and was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American Second Team selection as a senior.
The last win of Bober's career was a 3-0 sweep over Marquette in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
Defense Delivers
Creighton has had its way in the BIG EAST thanks to dominant defense in recent times.
Twenty of CU's last 27 BIG EAST opponents have hit lower than .120.
The only team to hit better than .177 in that time was Marquette's .207 on Oct. 14 and its .274 on Nov. 19.
Over the past 27 matches versus league opposition, Creighton opponents are hitting .106 (862-536-3067 in 88 sets) and averaging just 9.80 kills per set.
Date Opponent (CU Result) K-E-TA Pct.
10/30/21 at DePaul (W 3-0) 35-25-127 .079
11/05/21 Xavier (W 3-0) 35-14-119 .176
11/07/21 Butler (W 3-1) 45-30-177 .085
11/12/21 at Georgetown (W 3-0) 24-22-116 .017
11/13/21 at Villanova (W 3-0) 24-13-94 .117
11/19/21 Seton Hall (W 3-0) 16-20-87 -.046
11/21/21 St. John's (W 3-0) 25-22-105 .029
11/26/21 vs. DePaul (W 3-0) 33-24-102 .088
11/27/21 at Marquette (W 3-0) 34-24-121 .083
09/23/22 Georgetown (W 3-0) 18-12-98 .061
09/25/22 Villanova (W 3-0) 29-21-89 .090
09/28/22 Xavier (W 3-0) 24-18-101 .059
09/30/22 Butler (W 3-0) 32-19-120 .108
10/07/22 at UConn (W 3-2) 52-29-160 .144
10/08/22 at Providence (W 3-0) 25-14-99 .111
10/14/22 #16 Marquette (W 3-2) 59-21-184 .207
10/16/22 DePaul (W 3-2) 53-33-176 .114
10/21/22 at Villanova (W 3-0) 26-16-110 .091
10/22/22 at Georgetown (W 3-0) 25-18-85 .082
10/28/22 at Seton Hall (W 3-0) 22-14-99 .081
10/30/22 at St. John's (W 3-0) 42-23-109 .174
11/04/22 Providence (W 3-0) 20-13-83 .084
11/06/22 Connecticut (W 3-0) 36-20-114 .140
11/11/22 St. John's (W 3-0) 28-14-91 .154
11/13/22 Seton Hall (W 3-0) 20-15-89 .056
11/18/22 at DePaul (W 3-0) 36-29-119 .059
11/19/22 at #16 Marquette (L 0-3) 44-13-113 .274
Down For The Count
Creighton has outscored teams 1,443-1,031 in league play this season and has allowed a BIG EAST opponent score more than 18 points in just 20 of the 60 sets played.
20 At A Time For Sis
Norah Sis had 27 kills in a 3-2 win at UConn on Oct. 7, one shy of her career-high done in September in a 3-2 win vs. Florida State.
On Oct. 14 and 16 Sis had 21 kills vs. Marquette, then provided 22 more two days later vs. DePaul. More recently, she had 20 kills at St. John's on Oct. 30 in just three sets.
Sis is one of six players in program history with multiple matches of 25 or more kills. Her 11 career matches of 20 or more kills ranks fifth-most.
Most Matches With 25+ Kills, Creighton Career
25+K Name Years
8 Melissa Walsh 1998-01
6 Leah Ratzlaff 2002-05
6 Jaali Winters 2015-18
3 Taryn Kloth 2015-18
2 Jessica Houts 2005-09
2 Norah Sis 2021-Present
1 Michelle Prorock 1994-96
1 JoDe Cieloha 1994-97
1 Shelly Kapler 1996-99
1 Melanie Keolanui 1997-00
1 Kelly Goc 2004-07
1 Alicia Runge 2009-10
1 Keeley Davis 2019-Present
Matches With 20+ Kills, Career
20+K Name Years
23 Melissa Walsh 1998-01
20 Leah Ratzlaff 2002-05
18 Jaali Winters 2015-18
13 Kelly Goc 2004-07
11 Norah Sis 2021-Present
10 JoDe Cieloha 1994-97
7 Taryn Kloth 2015-18
5 Jessica Houts 2005-09
5 Leah McNary 2011-14
Matches With 20+ Kills, Season
20+K Name Year
11 Leah Ratzlaff 2003
9 Leah Ratzlaff 2004
9 Jaali Winters 2015
8 Melissa Walsh 2000
7 Melissa Walsh 1999
7 Norah Sis 2022
6 Kelly Goc 2006
6 Jaali Winters 2016
5 Kelly Goc 2007
5 Taryn Kloth 2018
Wait, How Is That Possible?
Only 16 players in the nation average 11.00 assists per set. Of those 16, only Creighton's Kendra Wait averages more than 3.00 digs per set.
Wait is averaging 11.04 assists and 3.22 digs per set this fall.
Let's Get It Started
Creighton has won its first 16 league matches in 2022 and has now started 11-0 (or better) in league play in five of the past eight seasons.
During four of the previous seven seasons, Creighton started BIG EAST play 11-0 or better.
Year League Wins Before First Loss Lost To
2013 0 at Butler
2014 5 at Seton Hall
2015 11 at Villanova
2016 18 --
2017 4 at Marquette
2018 18 --
2019 12 at Villanova
2020 1 #25 Marquette
2021 2 at St. John's
2022 17 at #16 Marquette
Set Streaks
How often had Creighton previously won each of its first 12 sets of a BIG EAST season before this year? How about never?
Only once previously had Creighton even won its first six sets in league play, and that came during the 2018 season where CU went 18-0 and dropped just 6-of-60 sets in league play all season. The most league sets won in a row to start a season had come in 2011, when Creighton won its first eight sets played. That team finished 12-6 in Missouri Valley Conference action.
Year Set Wins Before First Set Loss Set Lost To
2013 1 at Butler
2014 5 Butler
2015 1 Seton Hall
2016 4 DePaul
2017 2 Georgetown
2018 7 at Butler
2019 5 Georgetown
2020 1 #25 Marquette
2021 2 at Butler
2022 12 --
BIG EAST Preseason Poll
Creighton Volleyball was picked to win the BIG EAST in a preseason poll of league coaches.
Creighton earned 9-of-11 first place votes and 99 of a possible 100 points. That was just ahead of Marquette's 90 points and the other two votes for first place.
DePaul (72) was picked third, just ahead of UConn (71) and St. John's (66). Rounding out the bottom half of the poll were Villanova (54), Butler (47), Xavier (42), Georgetown (25), Providence (25) and Seton Hall (14).
Creighton also had three women among the 12 members on the BIG EAST's preseason all-conference team in Jaela Zimmerman and Kendra Wait as well as unanimous selection Norah Sis. Sis was also tabbed the BIG EAST's Preseason Player of the Year.
Creighton has finished in the spot predicted of it or better in the preseason poll in 17 of 19 years under Kirsten Bernthal Booth, including nine years where it's finished exactly where it was picked.
Year Preseason Pick Finish Move
1994 11th 9th #2
1995 9th 7th #2
1996 9th 6th #3
1997 8th 3rd #5
1998 6th 8th i2
1999 T-7th 5th #2
2000 4th T-4th - -
2001 2nd 4th i2
2002 7th 9th i2
2003 9th T-5th #4
2004 5th 5th - -
2005 5th 5th - -
2006 4th 4th - -
2007 3rd T-2nd #1
2008 3rd 2nd #1
2009 4th T-4th - -
2010 4th 3rd #1
2011 3rd 4th i1
2012 4th 1st #3
2013 1st T-2nd i1
2014 1st 1st - -
2015 1st 1st - -
2016 1st 1st - -
2017 1st 1st - -
2018 2nd 1st #1
2019 2nd 1st #1
2020 1st (MW) 1st (MW) - -
2021 1st 1st - -
2022 1st T-1st - -
Wait Making History
Just nine days after she had 59 assists and 36 digs against Florida State, Kendra Wait had 56 assists and 24 digs on Sept. 18 at Rice.
Wait is the first Bluejay with a match of at least 50 assists and 20 digs in a match since Korie Lebeda in 2006, and first Bluejay since Kailey Reyes (in 1999) to post multiple matches of at least 50 assists and 20 digs in the same season.
No Creighton player has ever done it three times in the same season.
50 Assists, 20 Digs In A Match
A D Name Opp. Date
51 21 Melissa Weisensee at Wichita State (5s) 9/14/96
53 24 Melissa Weisensee at Indiana State (5s) 10/18/96
65 22 Melissa Weisensee at Evansville (5s) 11/8/97
55 28 Kailey Reyes Evansville (5s) 9/11/99
65 24 Kailey Reyes Illinois State (4s) 9/24/99
64 23 Kailey Reyes at Evansville (5s) 11/4/00
54 22 Brittany Coleman at Illinois State (4s) 10/18/03
62 21 Brittany Coleman at So. Illinois (4s) 10/29/04
71 20 Korie Lebeda at Evansville (5s) 11/18/06
59 36 Kendra Wait vs. Florida State (5s) 9/9/22
56 24 Kendra Wait at Rice (5s) 9/18/22
All That Jazz
Jazz Schmidt had just 25 kills in Creighton's first 10 matches of the season before she erupted for a season-high 17 kills on Sept. 18 at Rice.
Schmidt's 17 kills were the most by a left-handed Bluejay since Megan Bober owned 19 kills at Southern Illinois on Oct. 21, 2011.
Sis Swings Away
Norah Sis obliterated Creighton's school-record of 77 attack attempts in a match (held by Jaali Winters) when she had 93 swings in CU's 3-2 win vs. Florida State on Sept. 9.
Sis' 93 attacks are the second-most in the nation by a player this season.
More From Sept. 9
Creighton's 129 digs vs. Florida State were two shy of its school record and second-most in the nation this year for a single match. CU's only match with more was 131 vs. Illinois State on Oct. 13, 2000.
Creighton's 254 attack attempts rank as its second-most in program history. The only match with more came Oct. 14, 2000 vs. Indiana State (296).
Norah Sis' 28 kills vs. Florida State are tied for fourth-most in program history, and four away from Michelle Prorock's school record set in 1996.
Whitten Surpasses 2,000 Digs
Creighton libero Allison Whitten surpassed 2,000 career digs on Sept. 18 at Rice, as she had 24 digs on the afternoon.
The grad transfer had 1,823 digs in four seasons at Morehead State and leads CU with 413 digs this season, giving her 2,237 in her career.
By comparison, the top two women in digs at Creighton (only) are Brittany Witt (2,079 from 2016-19) and Kate Elman (2,054 from 2012-15).
Last year's Bluejay libero, Abby Bottomley, finished her career seventh in NCAA history with 2,711 career digs, though the first 2,158 digs came while at High Point from 2017-20.
Whitten has seven or more digs in all 29 contests this fall.
My Favorite Martin
Ava Martin opened her BIG EAST career with 10 kills (Sept. 23 vs. Georgetown), 11 kills (Sept. 25 vs. Villanova), 14 kills (Sept. 28 vs. Xavier) and 14 kills (Sept. 30 vs. Butler), helping her earn back-to-back BIG EAST Freshman of the Week accolades.
She was the first Bluejay freshman to open her BIG EAST career with four straight matches of 10 or more kills, and just the third in program history to do so in any conference.
Martin had her first career double-double vs. No. 16 Marquette when she had 18 kills and 12 digs on Oct. 14.
Allie Oelke did it in four straight matches in 2007 and JoDe Cieloha set the record that still stands with five straight matches in 1994. Both of those came in the Missouri Valley Conference.
CU Freshmen With 10+ Kills to Start League Play
Streak Name Year
5 JoDe Cieloha 1994
4 Allie Oelke 2007
4 Ava Martin 2022
3 Rachelle Von 1997
3 Melissa Walsh 1998
3 Jaali Winters 2015
2 Michelle Prorock 1994
2 Carolyn Decker 2004
2 Jessica Houts 2005
2 Melanie Jereb 2012
15,797 Fans!
No. 17 Creighton hosted 15,797 fans on Sept. 7 against No. 2 Nebraska, setting a record for the largest regular-season volleyball-only crowd in NCAA history. The mark stood for all of nine days before Wisconsin hosted 16,833 fans for a match vs. Florida.
Here's a look at the top volleyball-only regular-season crowds in NCAA history. Of note, 13 of the top 14 figures of 11,000 or more have been in the state of Nebraska.
Largest Regular-Season Volleyball-Only Crowds in NCAA History
Att. Opponent, Result Date Site
16,833 Florida def. Wisconsin 9/16/22 Madison, WI
15,797 Nebraska def. Creighton, 3-2 9/7/22 Omaha, NE
14,022 Nebraska def. Creighton, 3-2 9/6/18 Omaha, NE
13,870 UCLA def. Nebraska, 3-2 9/13/09 Lincoln, NE
13,412 Nebraska def. LSU, 3-0 9/12/08 Lincoln, NE
13,396 Nebraska def. Hawai'i, 3-0 10/21/07 Lincoln, NE
13,081 Cal Poly def. Creighton, 3-0 9/2/07 Omaha, NE
Nebraska def. Penn State, 3-0
12,504 Nebraska def. Colorado, 3-0 11/4/00 Lincoln, NE
12,112 Nebraska def. Creighton, 3-1 9/24/06 Omaha, NE
11,892 Dayton def. W. Michigan, 3-0 9/11/10 Lincoln, NE
Nebraska def. Illinois, 3-2
11,529 Nebraska def. Colorado, 3-0 10/22/95 Lincoln, NE
11,279 Nebraska def. Creighton, 3-0 09/08/21 Omaha, NE
11,076 Nebraska def. UCLA, 3-1 8/25/07 Omaha, NE
Tennessee def. Utah, 3-2
11,032 UCLA def. Nebraska, 3-1 9/14/91 Lincoln, NE
10,927 Minnesota def. Illinois, 3-1 10/16/04 Minneapolis, MN
10,645 Purdue def. W. Michigan, 3-1 10/29/85 W. Lafayette, IN
10,576 Penn St. def. Hawai'i, 3-0 8/27/05 Omaha, NE
Nebraska def. Stanford, 3-0
10,570 Purdue def. Wisconsin, 3-2 10/17/08 W. Lafayette, IN
Sis Races Past 500, 600 & 700 Kills
Sophomore Norah Sis is one of the fastest players in CU history to 500, 600, 700 and 800 career kills.
Creighton's Quickest Players To 500 Kills (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Jaali Winters 34 12/04/15 vs. Coastal Carolina
Melissa Walsh 37 09/25/99 Indiana State
Norah Sis 40 09/03/22 #16 Kentucky
JoDe Cieloha 43 10/15/95 at Indiana State
Keeley Davis 43 03/28/21 Xavier
Amanda Cvejdlik 44 10/13/06 at Wichita State
Creighton's Quickest Players To 600 Kills (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Jaali Winters 41 09/03/16 at USC
Melissa Walsh 42 10/09/99 at Wichita State
Norah Sis 45 09/17/22 vs. Kansas State
Leah Ratzlaff 52 11/14/03 Illinois State
JoDe Cieloha 53 08/30/96 Murray State
Amanda Cvejdlik 53 11/17/06 at Southern Illinois
Creighton's Quickest Players To 700 Kills (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Melissa Walsh 49 11/06/99 Missouri State
Jaali Winters 50 09/25/16 DePaul
Norah Sis 53 10/14/22 #16 Marquette
Leah Ratzlaff 57 09/03/04 vs. Montana
JoDe Cieloha 61 09/14/96 at Wichita State
Alicia Runge 62 11/27/10 at Northern Iowa
Creighton's Quickest Players To 800 Kills (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Melissa Walsh 56 09/02/00 vs. UNCG
Jaali Winters 59 10/28/16 at Seton Hall
Norah Sis 59 11/04/22 Providence
Leah Ratzlaff 64 09/14/04 at Iowa
JoDe Cieloha 68 10/11/96 Bradley
10 Straight NCAA's
Creighton Volleyball has made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last 10 seasons. They are the first women's team in any sport at Creighton to make 10 straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
The only other sport in Creighton history to make 10 straight NCAA Tournament appearances is the men's soccer program, which qualified in 17 straight seasons from 1992-2008.
Creighton is one of nine teams nationally to have appeared in each of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments (2012-21). That group features BYU, Creighton, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, Penn State, San Diego, Texas and Washington.
There are also 13 schools that have appeared in 11 of the last 12 NCAA Tournaments, a group that includes Creighton, Florida State, Hawai'i, Minnesota, Purdue and Stanford.
Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, Penn State, San Diego, Texas and Washington have appeared in every NCAA Tournament since at least 2010.
Preseason Ranking
Creighton was ranked 18th in the AVCA preseason poll. It's the eighth time in the past 10 years that the Jays have been ranked in the preseason.
The No. 18 slotting was tied for the fourth-best preseason ranking in program history.
Over the previous 14 seasons, 255-of-350 teams (72.9 percent) of teams have been in both the preseason and final polls, and since 2008 318-of-350 teams (90.9 percent) in the preseason top-25 polls would go on to reach the NCAA Tournament.
This year marks the 11th straight season that CU has been ranked at least one week, extending a program record.
Year Preseason Rank Final W-L Final Rank
2013 25th 23-9 NR
2014 23rd 25-9 NR
2016 18th 27-9 9th
2017 9th 26-7 16th
2018 13th 29-5 13th
2019 18th 25-6 16th
2020 16th 12-4 NR
2022 18th TBD TBD
Some Fab Freshmen
Including Sky McCune on Aug. 26 vs. Iowa State, Creighton has started 15 different true freshmen in its season opener since 2009, and 19 such players since 2000.
Since 2000, the only true freshmen to start CU's season-opener have been Brittany Coleman (2003), Carolyn Decker (2004), Korie Lebeda (2005), Allie Oelke (2007), Brooke Boggs (2009), Heather Thorson (2009), Julianne Mandolfo (2010), Katie Neisler (2011), Michelle Sicner (2011), Melanie Jereb (2012), Ashley Jansen (2012), Jess Bird (2013), Jaali Winters (2015), Naomi Hickman (2017), Emily Bressman (2019), Kiara Reinhardt (2020), Kendra Wait (2021), Norah Sis (2021) and Sky McCune (2022), with Coleman, Lebeda and Wait the only freshmen to start at setter in the season-opener.
In addition, CU also started redshirt freshmen Lauren Smith (2013) and Brittany Lawrence (2015), as well as transfers Maggie Baumert (2014), Lydia Dimke (2016), Madelyn Cole (2018), Erica Kostelac (2019) and Mahina Pua'a (2020) in season-openers.
Ten of those women (Sis, Wait, Reinhardt, Coleman, Decker, Lebeda, Oelke, Mandolfo, Sicner and Jereb) went on to land a spot on the MVC or BIG EAST's All-Freshman Team (though the BIG EAST had no such team from 2013-19). Winters was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Year in 2015, Dimke was named BIG EAST Player of the Year in 2016, Davis was BIG EAST Freshman of the Year in 2019 and Sis recognized as BIG EAST Freshman of the Year in 2022.
Last year marked the first time that Creighton started multiple true freshmen in a season-opener since 2012, when Ashley Jansen and Melanie Jereb both earning a starting nod. The 2012 and 2021 teams are the two winningest single-season teams in program history.
Believe The Hype
Creighton's recruiting class of freshmen Morgan Colangelo, Ava Martin, Sky McCune and Ann Marie Remmes was recognized as the nation's No. 24 class by PrepVolleyball.
Martin was listed as the nation's No. 47 recruit, while McCune was tabbed 52nd-best. Creighton now owns eight players on its 2022 roster who were Top 100 recruits.
Top-100 PrepVolleyball.com Senior Aces
(list started in 2004)
Rank Year Player
68 2004 Carolyn Decker
55 2008 Laurel Sanford
60 2011 Michelle Sicner
73 2013 Jess Bird
50 2014 Lydia Dimke*
18 2015 Taryn Kloth
41 2015 Jaali Winters
77 2016 Erica Kostelac#
98 2017 Naomi Hickman
99 2017 Steph Gaston
49 2018 Jaela Zimmerman
42 2018 Keeley Davis
46 2020 Kiara Reinhardt
97 2020 Ellie Bolton
7 2021 Kendra Wait
28 2021 Norah Sis
31 2021 Eve Magill
47 2022 Ava Martin
52 2022 Sky McCune
* signed with Purdue and later transferred to Creighton
# signed with Cincinnati and later transferred to Creighton
PrepVolleyball.com Recruiting Rankings
(list started in 2004)
Year Rank Freshman Recruits
2004 Best of the Rest (Baumann, Decker, Goc, Lahm, Mehal)
2005 Honorable-Mention (Cvejdlik, Houts, Lebeda)
2006 None (Bloemke, Schulze, Workman)
2007 None (Feldman, Oelke, Vrbicky)
2008 Highest Honorable-Mention (Almgren, Bober, Sanford)
2009 Highest HM Boggs, Greisch, Moon, Templeton, Thorson)
2010 High HM (Fliss, Hackbarth, Malm, Mandolfo, S. Smith)
2011 Highest HM (Browning, McNary, Neisler, Sicner, Stivers)
2012 High Honorable-Mention (Elman, Jansen, Jereb, L. Smith)
2013 None (Bird, Crawford, Foje)
2014 Highest Honorable-Mention (Lawrence, Tupper, Wilkinson)
2015 11th (Ballenger, Bohnet, Kloth, O'Connell, Winters)
2016 High Honorable-Mention (Conlon, Taylor, Witt)
2017 25th (Gaston, Hickman, Roumeliotis)
2018 10th (Davis, Welty, Zimmerman, Zumach)
2019 Highest HM (Bressman, Krause, Schmitt, Van Eekeren)
2020 27th (Bolton, Maser, Reinhardt, Skovsende)
2021 5th (Magill, Milner, Sis, Wait)
2022 24th (Colangelo, Martin, McCune, Remmes)
Set 1 Result A Strong Indicator
Creighton is 371-33 (.918) overall under Kirsten Bernthal Booth when it wins set one. In that same time span, CU is just 68-150 (.312) under Booth when it drops the first set.
Per RichKern.com, Division I teams that lost the first set in 2018 won just 20.7 percent of their matches that season, and 20.2 percent of their matches from 2009-18.
Since Aug. 29, 2010, Creighton has gone 135-4 in its last 139 home matches when taking a 1-0 lead, losing only on Sept. 12, 2015 to Pacific, on Sept. 6, 2018 to No. 7 Nebraska and on Jan. 29, 2021 to South Dakota and on Sept. 3, 2022 to No. 16 Kentucky.
Creighton has gone 103-3 in its last 106 matches at all sites when winning the first set, compared to an 11-16 record in that same span when dropping the opener.
Creighton has gone 144-2 in its last 146 matches against unranked foes when winning the opening set.
Eleventh Heaven
Kirsten Bernthal Booth is in some select company, as she has directed her team to 11 NCAA Tournaments.
That puts her in the company of some of the greatest coaches in CU Athletics history, as she's tied former men's soccer coach Bob Warming atop that list.
Name Sport NCAA's @CU
Bob Warming Men's Soccer 11
Kirsten Bernthal Booth Volleyball 11
Dana Altman Men's Basketball 7
Greg McDermott Men's Basketball 7
Brent Vigness Softball 7
Elmar Bolowich Men's Soccer 6
Against NCAA Tournament Qualifiers
Last season Creighton played four matches against 2020 NCAA Tournament qualifiers, going 3-1 against such teams.
This year's team owns eight matches (Iowa State, Kentucky, Nebraska, Florida State, Kansas State, Rice and Marquette) scheduled against teams that made the 2021 NCAA Tournament, and CU is 4-4 against those foes to date.
After going 3-35 against teams coming off NCAA Tournament bids prior to Kirsten Bernthal Booth's arrival, the Jays are 93-105 since.
Year W-L vs. Previous Season NCAA Teams
1994 0-4
1995 0-2
1996 0-2
1997 0-3
1998 0-5
1999 2-4
2000 0-4
2001 1-6
2002 0-5
2003 0-3
2004 2-2
2005 0-6
2006 4-6
2007 4-9
2008 6-8
2009 1-11
2010 4-7
2011 2-6
2012 8-3
2013 6-6
2014 4-5
2015 11-5
2016 10-7
2017 8-6
2018 8-5
2019 5-4
2020 3-1
2021 3-1
2022 4-4 so far
TOTAL 96-140
TOTAL Under Booth 93-105
Marian Pipeline
This is the 20th straight season that Creighton Volleyball had at least one product of Omaha Marian High School on the roster, as senior Emily Bressman keeps the streak alive.
Interestingly, the Bluejays had never had a volleyball player from Marian between 1994-2002. Here's a look at Creighton's pipeline of players from Marian.
2022: Emily Bressman
2021: Emily Bressman
2020: Emily Bressman
2019: Emily Bressman, Brittany Witt
2018: Kelsey O'Connell, Brittany Witt
2017: Kelsey O'Connell, Brittany Witt
2016: Kelsey O'Connell, Brittany Witt
2015: Kate Elman, Ashley Jansen, Kelsey O'Connell
2014: Kate Elman, Ashley Jansen
2013: Kate Elman, Ashley Jansen
2012: Kate Elman, Ashley Jansen
2011: Julianne Mandolfo
2010: Lisa Greisch, Julianne Mandolfo
2009: Lisa Greisch
2008: Emily Crowley, Korie Lebeda
2007: Korie Lebeda, Katie Mehal
2006: Korie Lebeda, Katie Mehal, Emily Greisch
2005: Korie Lebeda, Katie Mehal
2004: Katie Mehal, Emily Greisch
2003: Emily Greisch
Survival of the Fittest
Creighton has won nine matches under Kirsten Bernthal Booth after surviving an opponent's match point, including season-opening wins over No. 5 Kentucky in 2018 and vs. UTSA in 2011. Three of those other comeback wins have come against Wichita State.
On the other hand, Creighton is 439-3 under Booth when it reaches a match point opportunity, falling only when it wasted two match points on Sept. 4, 2010 to Iowa, two match points on Nov. 1, 2013 in a loss to St. John's, and two match points on Dec. 7, 2019 in an NCAA Tournament loss at No. 7 Minnesota.
Surviving Match Points, Under Booth
Date Opponent MP(s) Faced Final Set 5
08/30/03 vs. McNeese State 13-14, 15-16 18-16
10/10/03 Wichita State 13-14 16-14
10/13/06 at Wichita State 12-14, 13-14, 14-15 17-15
09/11/07 at Drake 13-14, 14-15 17-15
08/26/11 vs. UTSA 12-14, 13-14 16-14
11/16/12 at Wichita State 13-14 16-14
09/20/15 Kansas State 23-24 (4th set) 15-13
11/20/15 at Georgetown 23-24, 26-27 (4th set) 15-7
08/24/18 vs. #5 Kentucky 16-15, 19-18 22-20
Climbing The List
Kirsten Bernthal Booth became Creighton Volleyball's winningest coach in the program's modern history on August 26, 2007, and hasn't let up. Booth owns 439 victories on the Bluejay sideline to rank fifth in school history across all sports.
Coach, Sport Victories (thru 11/21)
Brent Vigness, Softball 819
Ed Servais, Baseball 618*
Mary Higgins, Softball 564
Tom Lilly, Men's & Women's Tennis 498*
Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Volleyball 439*
Jim Flanery, Women's Basketball 391*
Ed Hubbs, Men's & Women's Tennis 347
Dana Altman, Men's Basketball 327
*still active coaching at Creighton
League Opener Histories
Including its Sept. 23 sweep of Georgetown, Creighton owns a 21-8 record all-time in conference openers, including an 18-2 record under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. That includes a 9-1 mark in BIG EAST lid-lifters, and nine straight wins.
Including 2022, each of the last 10 times that Creighton won its league opener (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022), the Bluejays went on to win the regular-season title, going a combined 161-11 in regular-season league action. Creighton also won eight of the previous nine conference tournament titles (entering 2022) during those years, going 16-1 in those seasons.
In the 20 seasons that Creighton has won its conference opener, it has never finished worse than .500 in league play and it owns a combined .775 (290-84) winning percentage (including 2022) in league matches.
In the eight years in which Creighton lost its league opener, the Bluejays have had a losing record on five occasions and owns a combined .363 (53-93) winning percentage during league contests.
In conference home openers, Creighton is 24-5 overall and 18-2 under Booth, with 12 straight wins.
In league road openers, Creighton is 20-9 overall and 17-3 under Booth, with nine straight wins.
Year-By-Year In Non-Conference Play
Despite annually facing one of the nation's toughest non-conference schedules, Creighton has continued to excel against elite competition.
Creighton is 8-12 against ranked non-conference foes over the last five seasons after going 2-43 all-time vs. ranked teams in regular-season non-conference matches.
Creighton owned 12 non-conference wins last season to set a program record for a regular-season. It's actually also the first season with 10 wins prior to league play.
Non-Conference Records, By Year, Under Booth
Year Non-Con W-L vs. Ranked Non-Con Final W-L
2003 3-8 0-0 12-18
2004 8-2 0-1 18-11
2005 6-5 0-3 16-14
2006 8-3 0-1 21-10
2007 6-5 0-3 21-10
2008 3-5 0-3 18-9
2009 3-8 0-3 14-17
2010 5-5 0-1 21-12
2011 5-7 0-1 17-14
2012 9-2 0-1 29-4
2013 9-3 1-2 23-9
2014 7-6 0-5 25-9
2015 6-7 1-4 27-9
2016 6-6 0-4 29-7
2017 7-4 3-3 26-7
2018 8-4 1-3 29-5
2019 7-3 2-3 25-6
2020 3-2 0-0 12-4
2021 12-1 1-1 31-4
2022 8-3 1-2 TBD
Production Returns
Creighton returns 11-of-16 letterwinners to the court from last season, including four starters
From last year's team, only Abby Bottomley, Naomi Hickman, Eve Magill, Ally Van Eekeren, Annika Welty are not back.
All told, of the seven categories listed below, Creighton returns 511.8 of a possible 700% back (73.1 percent).
Below is a breakdown of the production that is back:
Stat Returners Departures
Assists 1,331 (87.4%) 192 (12.6%)
Kills 1,307 (80.2%) 323 (19.8%)
Points 1,627.0 (75.6%) 526.0 (24.4%)
Matches Started 154 (73.3%) 56 (26.7%)
Digs 1,460 (70.6%) 607 (29.4%)
Aces 128 (66.7%) 64 (33.3%)
Blocks 192 (58.0%) 139.0 (42.0%)
Match #30: Xavier or Butler at #15 Creighton • Friday, Nov. 25 • 7:00 p.m. • Omaha, Neb.
| LIVE VIDEO ($) | FLOSPORTS INFO | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE STATS | CU NOTES (PDF) |
This Week
The postseason beckons for No. 15 Creighton (25-4, 17-1 BIG EAST) as the nine-time defending BIG EAST regular-season champion Bluejays host the BIG EAST Championship, presented by JEEP, this weekend.
Newly expanded to six teams, the tournament gets underway on Wednesday at 1 p.m. when fourth-seeded St. John's (19-12, 10-8 BIG EAST) takes on fifth-seeded Connecticut (16-13, 10-8 BIG EAST).
The second quarterfinal will take place at 4 p.m. when third-seeded Xavier (18-10, 11-7 BIG EAST) squares off with sixth-seeded Butler (16-14, 10-8 BIG EAST).
After taking a day off for Thanksgiving, play resumes on Friday at 4 p.m. when top-seeded and No. 14 Marquette (26-2, 17-1 BIG EAST) faces the winner of Wednesday's 1 p.m. quarterfinal between St. John's and Connecticut.
Second-seeded Creighton hits the floor on Friday at 7 p.m. when it takes on the victor of Wednesday's 4 p.m. quarterfinal between Xavier and Butler.
D.J. Sokol Arena (2,500) in Omaha, Neb., will host the action.
How To Watch
The BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinals and semifinals will air on FloSports. Jon Schriner and Shannon Smolinski will be on the call on Wednesday, while Bob Brainerd and Jill Dorsey Hall take over for Saturday's semifinals.
More information about discounted subscriptions to FloSports programming can be found at http://GoCreighton.com/FloSports.
Saturday's championship match will be televised on FS2 and be broadcasted by Bob Brainerd and Jill Dorsey Hall. That match ill be streamed on http://FoxSports.com/live.
How To Listen
Creighton's semifinal match webcast will air on KZOT (1180 The Zone), with Jon Schriner and Shannon Smolinski. Schriner and Smolinski would also call Saturday's match on KZOT (1180 The Zone) should Creighton advance to the final.
Audio from CU's match(es) will be streamed at http://GoCreighton.com/listen1180.
Live Stats Information
All matches of the BIG EAST Tournament will have free live stats. The link to each is also on the GoCreighton.com volleyball schedule page.
Scouting #15 Creighton
Ranked 15th nationally, Creighton is 25-4 this season after going 17-1 to clinch a share of a ninth straight BIG EAST regular-season title. The lone losses have come to then-No. 16 Kentucky (3-1 on Sept. 3), to then-No. 2 Nebraska (3-2 on Sept. 7), at current No. 22 Rice (3-2 on Sept. 18) and to No. 16 Marquette (3-0 on Nov. 19).
The Bluejays lost just nine sets in league play all season and had a program-record stretch of 29 straight set wins snapped last Saturday at Marquette.
Creighton owns wins over a boatload of NCAA Tournament regulars, including No. 16 Marquette, No. 25 USC, Iowa State, Kansas State, Florida State, Northern Iowa and Wichita State.
Sophomore OH Norah Sis (4.19 kps., 2.48 dps.) was named BIG EAST Player of the Year after a standout season that saw her top the BIG EAST in kills per set and points per set this year.
Senior MB Kiana Schmitt owns 2.29 kills per set on .323 hitting and was named All-BIG EAST. She led all players with 74 blocks in BIG EAST action this fall.
As if that wasn't enough, OH Ava Martin (2.38 kps.) has taken her game to another level in league play, hitting .309 and averaging 2.91 kills per set against conference competition to earn BIG EAST Freshman of the Week accolades four times in addition to BIG EAST Freshman of the Year acclaim.
Quarterbacking the Bluejay offense is sophomore S Kendra Wait (11.04 aps., 3.22 dps., .355%), a two-time all-BIG EAST choice.
Other seniors to keep an eye on include libero Allison Whitten (2,237 career digs), OH Keeley Davis (CU record 148 aces) and RS/S Jazz Schmidt (.454 hitting % in league play). Davis has led the BIG EAST in aces per set each of the past two years.
Creighton averages 14.37 kills, 1.60 aces, 16.74 digs and 2.06 blocks per set while hitting .267 as a team.
Scouting Xavier
Xavier is 18-10 on the season and finished third in the BIG EAST with an 11-7 mark despite closing with two straight losses. The Musketeers are 8-2 in five-set matches this season.
Missouri State transfer Brooklyn Cink (3.42 kps., .266%) leads the Musketeer offense, with Delaney Hogan (2.39 kps., .324%) and Anna Taylor (2.08 kps.) also average multiple kills per set.
All-BIG EAST setter Carrigan O'Reilly (8.98 aps., 2.46 dps., 1.51 kps.) owns four career triple-doubles, and Lucia Corsaro (4.08 dps.) owns the team lead in digs.
The Musketeers average 13.06 kills, 1.19 aces, 16.13 digs and 1.73 blocks per set on .239 hitting.
This Season vs. Xavier
Creighton swept Xavier (25-9, 25-17, 25-16) on Sept. 28th in Omaha in the only meeting with the Musketeers this fall.
Ava Martin hit .684 with 14 kills in 19 swings, Norah Sis (13 kills, 10 digs) contributed a double-double and Keeley Davis served a career-high five aces to pace the Bluejays. CU hit a season-best .381 in the win.
The Musketeers hit just .059 and were paced by seven kills by Brooklyn Cink.
Series History vs. Xavier
Creighton is 22-0 all-time against Xavier, with all the matches having occurred since 2013. Thirteen of the last 15 meetings have been 3-0 CU sweeps, but the two exceptions were 3-2 Creighton wins in Omaha in 2018 and the spring of 2021.
Thanks in part to a 3-0 record in league tourney action against the Musketeers, Creighton has more wins against Xavier (22) than any other team since joining the BIG EAST.
Creighton's victory on Oct. 5, 2013 in Cincinnati was the program's first BIG EAST win in history.
Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 22-0 vs. Xavier, and she is 16-0 against Christy Pfeffenberger.
Scouting Butler
Butler is 16-14 this season and tied for fourth in the BIG EAST with a 10-8 league record. The Bulldogs bring a three-match win streak into the league championships after saving seven match points to win a 24-22 fifth set vs. UConn on Sunday.
Mariah Grunze (3.32 kps.), Megan Sheridan (2.32 kps.) and Amina Shackelford (2.97 kps., 0.94 bps.) lead the team in kills per set.
Cora Taylor (9.34 aps.) tops the club in assists and two-time BIG EAST Libero of the Year Jaymeson Kinley (5.42 dps.) leads the BIG EAST in digs per set.
The Bulldogs average 12.16 kills, 1.12 aces, 15.96 digs and 2.37 blocks per set on .186 hitting.
This Season vs. Butler
Creighton swept Butler (25-15, 25-16, 25-17) on Sept. 30th in Omaha in the lone meeting this season.
Ava Martin hit .500 and had 14 kills in the win, while Kendra Wait added 38 assists, 11 digs and five blocks.
Mariah Grunze and Amina Shackelford both had 11 kills for the Bulldogs, and Jaymeson Kinley contributed a match-high 18 digs.
Series History vs. Butler
Creighton is 18-1 all-time against Butler, including five-set victories in three of the past 11 meetings.
Butler ruined Creighton's BIG EAST debut on Oct. 4, 2013 in Indianapolis, handing the Bluejays a four-set loss, but Creighton has won all 18 meetings since then.
The teams have never met in the BIG EAST Tournament.
Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 18-1 vs. Butler and head coach Sharon Clark.
Creighton Coaches
Creighton is coached by Kirsten Bernthal Booth (Truman State, 1997), who owns a 439-183 record in her 20th season with the Bluejays. She's led Creighton to nine straight BIG EAST titles (2014-21), and 10 league crowns in the last 11 years. Booth led the Bluejays to their first two Sweet 16's (2015, 2016) and first Elite Eight (2016) in program history. In 2016 she was recognized as VolleyballMag.com National Coach of the Year, BIG EAST Coach of the Year and AVCA East Region Coach of the Year. Booth was tabbed BIG EAST Coach of the Year for the third time in 2019.
The winningest coach in school history, Booth has taken Creighton to its only 11 NCAA Tournament bids in the program's modern history. She's also coached CU into the top-25 each of the last 11 seasons (including 2022), another program first.
Booth came to Creighton after going 112-41 in three years at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A native of Lincoln, Neb., Booth played volleyball at Truman State, where she was named conference MVP, an Academic All-American and Missouri's 1997 NCAA Woman of the Year. She ranked third in Division II history with 6,077 assists when she graduated.
Booth is assisted by Angie Oxley Behrens, Brian Rosen and Elise Fulcher.
BIG EAST Championship History
Creighton is 15-2 all-time in nine previous BIG EAST Championship appearances, including seven titles (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021).
Creighton is 8-1 in the semifinal round and 7-1 in the finals.
CU has never faced Butler at the BIG EAST Championship, but is 3-0 against Xavier in tourney action (2013, 2014, 2016).
Nine of Creighton's last 10 teams have reached the conference tournament title match, a stretch that started in 2012 when the Bluejays were members of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Creighton is 7-1 all-time at D.J. Sokol Arena at the BIG EAST Championships, including titles in 2015, 2018 and 2020, but did lose in the final in 2013.
At 15-2, Creighton is the only team in this weekend's BIG EAST Championship with a winning record in the event all-time. Butler is 0-2, Marquette is 11-12, UConn is 11-40, St. John's is 7-8 and Xavier is 1-4.
Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 15-2 in BIG EAST Championship action with seven titles. By comparison, the league's 10 other active coaches have a combined mark of 14-30 in the BIG EAST Championship with two titles, and none of the other 10 have a winning record in the event.
With a Win...
With a win on Friday, Creighton would...
- Improve to 26-4 on the season, tied for the sixth-most single-season wins in team history.
-Improve to 16-2 all-time in the BIG EAST Championship, including an 9-1 mark in the semifinal round.
- Kirsten Bernthal Booth would improve to 16-2 at the BIG EAST Championship, while the rest of the league's active coaches would be a combined 17-34 by the day's end.
- Improve to 2-1 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament play as the No. 2 seed, and 2-2 in all conference tournaments as a No. 2 seed.
- Advance to its 10th conference tournament title match in the past 11 seasons, a stretch that started with the 2012 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament final.
Booth's Haul
With seven titles, Kirsten Bernthal Booth is one of two volleyball coaches in league history to win six or more BIG EAST Championship titles.
The only other coach with six or more was Notre Dame's Debbie Brown (9).
BIG EAST Tournament Champions
Creighton Volleyball is seeking the school's 10th different BIG EAST Tournament title won by the school since joining the BIG EAST in the summer of 2013.
All but two of those titles have been won by the volleyball program.
With a title this weekend, Creighton can join Notre Dame (1996), Louisville (2010) and Marquette (2013) as the only programs to win the BIG EAST Tournament in men's soccer and women's volleyball in the same year.
Creighton's BIG EAST Tournament Titles (9)
Baseball (1): 2019
Men's Soccer (1): 2022
Volleyball (7): 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021
All-BIG EAST Quartet
Four members of the Creighton Volleyball program have earned All-BIG EAST honors, with Norah Sis being selected as Player of the Year and Ava Martin recognized as Freshman of the Year.
Sis joins Lydia Dimke (2016) and Jaali Winters (2018) as Creighton women named BIG EAST Player of the Year. Sis lived up to the hype as Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year as she led the league in kills per set (4.19) and points per set (4.61). The Papillion, Neb., product was a three-time BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and has single-match highs of 28 kills (vs. Florida State), 19 digs (vs. Florida State and at Rice) and nine blocks (vs. DePaul). Sis was also an All-BIG EAST selection in 2021, when she brought home Freshman of the Year accolades from the BIG EAST.
Martin becomes Creighton's fourth BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, joining Jaali Winters (2015) as well as current teammates Keeley Davis (2019) and Norah Sis (2021). A four-time BIG EAST Freshman of the Week this season, Martin ranked ninth in the BIG EAST in hitting percentage (.309) during league play and the Bluejays are 11-0 when the Overland Park, Kan., native owns eight or more kills.
One of the league's most improved players, Kiana Schmitt earns her first All-BIG EAST plaudit after a huge season that saw her top the conference in BIG EAST play with 1.23 blocks per set and ranking fourth with a .361 hitting percentage. Creighton is 19-0 all-time when the senior owns four or more blocks and 40-5 when the Waunakee, Wis., middle blocker generates six or more kills. The two-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week this fall had her best match in a 3-2 win vs. DePaul when she finished with career-highs of 16 kills and 13 blocks.
Kendra Wait was named All-BIG EAST for the second straight season after once again leading the BIG EAST in assists per set. The Gardner, Kan., native is the nation's only player averaging at least 11.00 assists and 3.00 digs per set and had career-highs with 59 assists and 36 digs vs. Florida State on Sept. 9. Wait leads the Bluejays with 17 double-doubles this fall.
This year marks the 10th time in as many years as a member of the BIG EAST that Creighton has had multiple all-conference selections, and eighth straight season with three or more First Team selections.
Back For More (Awards)
Last season Norah Sis was named Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Championships and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by fellow Bluejay returnees Jaela Zimmerman and Kendra Wait.
No player has been named Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Championship multiple times since Creighton's Jaali Winters (2016, 2018), and no player has won the award in back-to-back seasons since Notre Dame's Jaimie Lee in 1996 and 1997.
As The Second Seed
Creighton is the No. 2 seed for a conference tournament for just the third time in team history.
The Bluejays were the No. 2 seed in the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, where it was upset by No. 3 seed Northern Iowa in five sets in Wichita, Kan.
Creighton's only BIG EAST Tournament as a No. 2 seed came in its first year in the league in 2013, where it defeated thired-seeded Xavier in four sets before falling to top-seeded Marquette in four sets. Both of those matches took place inside D.J. Sokol Arena.
The BIG EAST Championship has been won by the top seed eight of the last nine years, and the No. 1 seed has also gone 17-1 in its last 18 games.
X Marks The Spot
Creighton owns 22 straight matches against Xavier, its best streak against any team.
Most Consecutive Match Wins Over One Team
Wins Opponent Dates
22 Xavier 2013-Present
21 DePaul 2013-Present
19 Southern Illinois 2003-11
19 Georgetown 2013-Present
18 Butler 2013-Present
16 Indiana State 2005-Present
Nine In A Row
Creighton clinched a share of its ninth straight BIG EAST regular-season title last weekend with a win at DePaul.
With its 2022 title, Creighton became the first team in BIG EAST volleyball history to win nine straight regular-season titles. The previous record had been seven by Notre Dame from 1999-2005.
The Bluejay volleyball team is also the first Creighton program in any sport to win nine or more straight league titles, surpassing the five in a row by the men's soccer program (1992-96).
Champions Among Champions
Since the start of the 2012 season, Creighton, Texas and Western Kentucky are the nation's only schools to have won nine conference regular-season titles (entering 2022). All but one of Creighton's nine crowns (entering 2022) were outright titles, whereas Texas shared one title and WKU shared five.
Creighton has also won eight conference tournament titles since 2012, tied for the most in the nation with Dayton and Western Kentucky.
Most Conference Titles 2012-2021
(Columns Don't Include 2022)
Regular-Season League Tournament
9 (1 shared) Creighton 8 Creighton
9 (1) Texas 8 Dayton
9 (5) Western Kentucky 8 Western Kentucky
8 BYU 7 Fairfield
8 (1) Colorado State 6 LIU
8 Fairfield 6 American
The. Best.
No matter how you slice it, Creighton and Marquette have dominated BIG EAST Volleyball since 2013.
Stat CU MU Everyone Else
BIG EAST Reg.-Season Titles 9 3 0
BIG EAST Play Win Percentage .917 .830 .408
BIG EAST Tourney TItles 7 1 1
BIG EAST Player of the Year 3 5 3
BIG EAST Libero of the Year 2 0 8
BIG EAST Freshman of the Year 4 3 4
BIG EAST Coach of the Year 3 2 5
AVCA All-Americans* 6 2 0
AVCA H.M. All-Americans 14 7 14
AVCA Region Freshman of Year 3 1 2
AVCA Region Coach of Year 3 0 2
CoSIDA Academic All-Americans 5 3 0
*First/Second/Third Teams only
Thorn In Marquette's Side
Marquette is 234-71 since the start of the 2013 season, but just 5-21 in that time against Creighton.
In other words, the Golden Eagles own a .192 winning percentage against Creighton (5-21) compared to a .821 mark (230-50) against everyone else.
No other team has beaten Marquette more than five times in the past decade (2013-22), with in-state rival Wisconsin (5) next-closest. Among BIG EAST teams, Xavier owns four wins to top those schools not named Creighton.
If you wanted to break it down to just the past five seasons, Marquette is 2-11 against Creighton (.154) and 116-13 (.899) against everyone else.
BIG EAST'S Best
Since the reconfiguration of the BIG EAST in the summer of 2013, Creighton, Marquette and St. John's are the only teams to win any sort of BIG EAST volleyball title.
Marquette won the regular-season and tournament title in 2013, while Creighton swept both titles in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. CU won the 2019 regular-season crown, while St. John's upset nationally-ranked Creighton and Marquette to bring home the 2019 tournament title. In 2020, Creighton won the Midwest Division regular-season title, while St. John's claimed the East Division crown. In 2021, Creighton and Marquette shared the regular-season title and CU won the tournament title. Both Creighton and Marquette also shared the 2022 regular-season title.
Below is a look at the record of each BIG EAST team since league realignment in 2013:
BIG EAST VB Standings Since 2013 (thru 11/22)
BIG EAST only All matches
Team (NCAA Bids) W L W L
Creighton (9) 154 14 252 64
Marquette (8) 137 28 235 71
Xavier 97 69 149 137
Butler 90 78 157 137
Villanova (1) 84 84 155 134
St. John's (1) 79 89 171 137
Seton Hall (1) 71 96 143 156
DePaul 45 123 109 173
Georgetown 35 125 86 186
Connecticut# 27 17 44 31
Providence* 27 125 94 165
*Providence rejoined the league for volleyball in 2014 and
its 2013 overall record (12-20) is not included above.
#Connecticut rejoined the league in 2020 and
its record from 2013-19 (96-121) is not included above.
The Avengers
During its nine-year run of BIG EAST Tournament titles from 2014-22, Creighton has just 10 regular-season losses. In nearly every case, Creighton would avenge that loss with a league tournament victory over the opponent that beat them previously.
This year's Creighton team owns one league loss, and could have a chance for revenge against Marquette in the final.
Date Loss Tourney Rematch Result
10/10/14 at Seton Hall
11/23/14 Seton Hall W 3-1
10/30/15 at Villanova W 3-0
10/05/17 at Marquette W 3-2
11/17/17 at Villanova W 3-0
11/08/19 at Villanova Didn't Meet
02/06/20 Marquette W 3-1
10/01/21 at St. John's Didn't Meet
10/16/21 at Connecticut Didn't Meet
11/19/22 at #16 Marquette Possibly Saturday?
Sweep Revenge
Creighton doesn't get swept very often...in fact last Saturday's 3-0 loss at Marquette was the first time the Bluejays were swept since Sept. 8, 2021 vs. No. 3 Nebraska.
Creighton answered that loss with eight straight victories.
The last time Creighton was swept in a BIG EAST match came Feb. 6, 2021 when No. 25 Marquette handed the Jays a 3-0 loss. CU responded with four straight wins.
Last Saturday was just the seventh time in 168 BIG EAST regular-season matches that Creighton has been swept.
Break Out The Brooms
Prior to last Saturday's 3-0 loss in Milwaukee, Creighton had won 29 straight sets over the course of 33 days.
It was the longest streak of sets won in program history, four more than the previous high. Three of CU's longest eight sets won streaks have now been snapped by Marquette.
Creighton has won 14 straight sets inside D.J. Sokol Arena, where it returns home this weekend.
Consecutive Sets Won
Set Wins Dates Snapped By
29 Oct. 16, 2022-Present at #16 Marquette
25 Oct. 22-Nov. 20, 2016 Villanova
25 Oct. 26-Nov. 23, 2018 #16 Marquette
22 Nov. 7-Dec. 2, 2021 Kansas
19 Oct. 12-Nov. 3, 2019 at Villanova
15 Oct. 7-21, 2016 at Marquette
15 Sept. 28-Oct. 13, 2018 at Villanova
15 Sept. 11-24, 2021 at Butler
Top 25 History
Creighton is 170-39 all-time when playing as a ranked team, and also 17-23 all-time against ranked teams when ranked itself. That mark improves to 2-1 when both Creighton and its opponent are ranked in the top 10.
Since the start of the 2012 season, 38 of Creighton's 68 losses have come against ranked teams. In that same period, Creighton is 261-30 against unranked teams. Creighton has won all but two of its past 92 home matches over unranked teams and all but nine of its last 119 matches at all sites against unranked teams.
After a total of three total top-25 wins from 1994-2014, Creighton has earned at least one top-25 win each of the last eight seasons (2015-22). That includes a record-tying four top-25 victories in 2019.
Creighton is 22-84 all-time against ranked teams and 12 of those top 25 wins all-time have come against either Marquette (7) or Kentucky (5).
The highest ranked teams that Creighton has ever beaten at any site were No. 3 Washington (8/26/17 in Seattle) and No. 3 Kentucky (9/4/21 in Lexington). CU's highest-ranked opponent it has defeated at home was a 3-1 win over then-No. 9 Marquette on Nov. 22, 2019.
Ranked vs. Ranked (CU is 17-23)
Home: 7-9 Away: 5-8 Neutral: 5-6
Date Winner Loser CU Score
11/19/12 #11 Minnesota #21 Creighton 1-3
08/30/13 #25 Creighton #13 BYU 3-1
09/14/13 #11 UCLA #24 Creighton 1-3
09/16/13 #7 Hawaii #23 Creighton 2-3
08/30/14 #22 Kansas #23 Creighton 1-3
09/03/16 #23 Kentucky #22 Creighton 0-3
12/02/16 #21 Creighton #4 Kansas 3-2
12/09/16 #21 Creighton #17 Michigan 3-2
12/10/16 #5 Texas #21 Creighton 0-3
08/26/17 #9 Creighton #3 Washington 3-1
09/01/17 #7 Creighton #13 Kentucky 3-0
09/02/17 #18 USC #7 Creighton 0-3
09/08/17 #17 Purdue #9 Creighton 1-3
09/09/17 #9 Creighton #7 Kansas 3-0
09/16/17 #19 Iowa State #8 Creighton 2-3
12/12/17 #12 Michigan St. #15 Creighton 1-3
08/24/18 #13 Creighton #5 Kentucky 3-2
08/25/18 #10 USC #13 Creighton 2-3
09/06/18 #7 Nebraska #14 Creighton 2-3
09/15/18 #8 Illinois #10 Creighton 1-3
09/23/18 #10 Creighton #21 Marquette 3-0
10/26/18 #10 Creighton #18 Marquette 3-1
11/24/18 #9 Creighton #16 Marquette 3-1
12/01/18 #22 Washington #9 Creighton 0-3
08/30/19 #2 Nebraska #18 Creighton 1-3
08/31/19 #20 Baylor #18 Creighton 0-3
09/06/19 #23 Creighton #12 Kentucky 3-1
09/07/19 #23 Creighton #15 USC 3-1
09/14/19 #12 Washington #17 Creighton 1-3
10/12/19 #13 Creighton #10 Marquette 3-2
11/22/19 #12 Creighton #9 Marquette 3-1
12/07/19 #7 Minnesota #15 Creighton 2-3
02/05/21 #19 Creighton #25 Marquette 3-2
02/06/21 #25 Marquette #19 Creighton 0-3
09/08/21 #3 Nebraska #19 Creighton 0-3
09/02/22 #17 Creighton #25 USC 3-1
09/03/22 #16 Kentucky #17 Creighton 1-3
09/07/22 #2 Nebraska #17 Creighton 2-3
10/14/22 #21 Creighton #16 Marquette 3-2
11/19/22 #16 Marquette #11 Creighton 0-3
Block Record Falls
Creighton set a school-record for total blocks and block assists the last time it met DePaul on Oct. 16.
Creighton's 22.0 blocks broke the record of 21.0 done twice before (in 2003 and 2012), and were the most by any BIG EAST team since 2018.
Creighton's 40 block assists were two more than the previous mark set in 2009 and 2012, and eight more than the previous mark for a five-set match done three times.
Individually, Kiana Schmitt's 13 total blocks were the most by a Bluejay since Kelli Browning in 2012, and tied for fifth-most ever by a Bluejay.
Most Total Blocks, Individual
17 Ashley Williams (3-14) vs. Wichita State (5s) 10-10-03
16 Ashley Williams (4-12) vs. Southern Illinois (5s) 9-19-03
15 Kelli Browning (0-15) vs. Tulsa (4s) 9-8-12
14 Jessica Houts (0-14) vs. Lipscomb (4s) 9-4-09
13 Laurel Sanford (1-12) vs. Southern Illinois (5s) 10-21-11
13 Kiana Schmitt (1-12) vs. DePaul (5s) 10-16-22
Most Total Blocks, Team
22 vs. DePaul (2-40) 10-16-22
21 vs. Southern Illinois (8-26) (5s) 9-19-03
21 vs. Tulsa (2-38) (4s) 9-8-12
20 vs. Lipscomb (1-38) (4s) 9-4-09
20 vs. Indiana State (3-34) (3s) 10-24-09
20 at Kansas (4-32) (5s) 9-19-12
Most Block Assists, Team
40 vs. DePaul (5s) 10-16-22
38 vs. Lipscomb (4s) 9-4-09
38 vs. Tulsa (4s) 9-8-12
36 vs. Southern Illinois (4s) 10-27-12
35 at Bradley (4s) 11-19-05
Against The BIG EAST
Since the BIG EAST was restructured in 2013, Creighton owns a record better than .500 against each of the other teams currently in the BIG EAST.
The Bluejays own 169 wins against BIG EAST competition (including BIG EAST Championship play) since 2013, 27 more wins than Marquette for most in the league.
CU still has not lost to four league foes (DePaul, Georgetown, Providence, Xavier) since joining the BIG EAST, and Marquette (5), Villanova (3), Seton Hall (3) and St. John's (3) are the only BIG EAST programs to top the Bluejays multiple times since 2013.
Opponent Reg. Season BE Tourney Total
Butler 18-1 - 18-1
Connecticut 2-1 1-0 3-1
DePaul 20-0 1-0 21-0
Georgetown 18-0 - 18-0
Marquette 16-4 5-1 21-5
Providence 15-0 - 15-0
Seton Hall 15-3 2-0 17-3
St. John's 16-2 0-1 16-3
Villanova 15-3 3-0 18-3
Xavier 19-0 3-0 22-0
Total 154-14 15-2 169-16
Five For Fighting
Creighton won back-to-back five set home matches against Marquette and DePaul on Oct. 14 and Oct. 16. Incredibly, it was the first time in 10 years of regular-season BIG EAST play that Creighton had played back-to-back five setters in conference matches at any site.
The last time it happened was CU's final two league matches as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference in 2012 when it won road matches at Wichita State and Missouri State.
Ironically, Creighton honored the league champion 2012 Volleyball team that weekend during its victory over Marquette.
Creighton had not won multiple five-set home matches on the same weekend since October of 2010 when it beat Missouri State and Wichita State on consecutive days.
Depth, Depth and More Depth
Only nine active players throughout the 11-team BIG EAST have at least 800 career kills, 500 career digs and 100 career blocks, and five of those women are Creighton Bluejays.
800 Kills, 500 Digs, 100 Career Blocks, BIG EAST
Name, School Kills Digs Blocks
Rachele Rastelli, SJU 1,832 607 400
Caylee Parker, UConn 1,682 1,211 208
Bethany Clapp, CU 1,214 879 165
Brooklyn Cink, XU 1,085 711 219
Jazz Schmidt, CU 1,003 728 205
Jaela Zimmerman, CU 1,000 796 165
Keeley Davis, CU 961 838 155
Jasmine Davis, UConn 860 810 145
Norah Sis, CU 854 591 114
Streak Reached 17
Before last Saturday, Creighton had won 17 straight matches, its 10th double-digit winning streak since 2012. The win streak was tied for the third-longest in program history.
When Kirsten Bernthal Booth was hired, the Jays had never had a win streak longer than five. Each of the 17 longest win streaks in program history have come under Booth's guidance.
Most Consecutive Wins, Creighton History
Wins Dates Snapped By
23 Sept. 23-Dec. 9, 2016 at #5 Texas, 3-0
21 Sept. 21 - Nov. 30, 2018 #22 Washington, 3-0
17 Sept. 29-Nov. 30, 2012 at #11 Minnesota, 3-1
17 Sept. 23 - Nov. 18, 2022 at #16 Marquette, 3-0
14 Sept. 19-Nov. 3, 2019 at Villanova, 3-0
14 Oct. 17-Dec. 2, 2021 Kansas, 3-1
12 Sept. 20-Oct. 25, 2015 at Villanova, 3-2
11 Oct. 11-Nov. 21, 2014 Seton Hall, 3-0
11 Oct. 6-Nov. 12, 2017 at Villanova, 3-0
10 Oct. 31-Dec. 5, 2015 vs. #2 USC, 3-1
Spectacular Sis
Norah Sis owns 10 or more kills in each of Cu's last 12 matches. That ranks tied for eighth in program history. With 10 kills on both Friday and Saturday, she could tie Kelly Goc for fifth place.
Consecutive Matches, 10 or More Kills
58 Leah Ratzlaff, Sept. 13, 2003-Sept. 9, 2005
21 Jaali Winters, Oct. 6, 2015 - Aug. 28, 2016
19 JoDe Cieloha, Sept. 26-Nov. 21, 1997
18 Jaela Zimmerman, Nov. 16, 2019 - March 27, 2021
14 Kelly Goc, Sept. 8-Oct. 19, 2007
13 JoDe Cieloha, Sept. 7-Oct. 18, 1996
13 Jaali Winters, Nov. 12, 2016-Sept. 1, 2017
12 Amanda Cvejdlik, Aug. 25-Sept. 19, 2006
12 Norah Sis, Oct. 7, 2022-Present
Ava Again?
Creighton's Ava Martin was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this fall on Nov. 14th.
Martin had 11 kills, six digs and an ace in Creighton's 3-0 victory against St. John's, finishing the week with averages of 3.67 kills, 2.00 digs and 0.33 aces per set.
This is the fourth time in the past eight weeks that Martin has been honored, having previously been recognized on Sept. 26, Oct. 3 and Oct. 17.
Martin's senior teammates Jazz Schmidt and Keeley Davis also landed a spot on the BIG EAST's Weekly Honor Roll.
Seniors Leading The Way
Creighton recognized seniors Emily Bressman, Bethany Clapp, Keeley Davis, Jazz Schmidt, Allison Whitten and Jaela Zimmerman following its Nov. 13th win vs. Seton Hall.
Clapp (Incarnate Word), Schmidt (Palm Beach Atlantic) and Whitten (Morehead State) are all graduate transfers in their first year in the Bluejay program.
Bressman has missed all of this season due to injury but owns 38 kills, 138 digs and four aces in her career as a defensive specialist and outside hitter.
Davis is a two-time All-Region and All-BIG EAST selection who burst onto the scene in 2019 as the league's Freshman of the Year. She owns 961 kills, 838 digs and ranks first in CU history with 148 aces.
Zimmerman is a three-time All-BIG EAST choice, two-time AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and a four-time event MVP. She enters this weekend with 1,000 kills, 796 digs and 77 aces.
All told, the group has combined for 5,616 digs, 4,234 kills, 2,000 assists, 690 blocks and 554 service aces at the collegiate level.
Attendance Update
Creighton enters the week ranked 10th nationally in total home attendance (35,814) and 15th in fans per home match (2,558).
Creighton has led the BIG EAST in average home attendance in every non-COVID year since joining the league.
Creighton's 35,814 home fans this fall are already second-most in program history. The 2,558 fans per home match are also second-most ever.
Most Home Fans, Season
Rk. Fans Dates Year
1. 47,632 17 2018
2. 35,814 14 2022
3. 30,211 14 2021
4. 29,905 18 2015
5. 25,615 13 2019
Highest Home Attendance Average, Season
Average Rk. Fans Dates Year
1. 2,802 47,632 17 2018
2. 2,558 35,814 14 2022
3. 2,158 30,211 14 2021
4. 1,970 25,615 13 2019
5. 1,873 24,346 13 2017
Decade of Dominance
Ten years in the BIG EAST gives Creighton a pretty good set of data to compare its yearly performance in league matches. Here's how the 2022 campaign compares to previous seasons:
Creighton's Year-By-Year BIG EAST Stats
Year W-L KPS HIT% SAPS DPS BPS
2013 12-4 13.75 .213 1.00 16.20 3.13
2014 16-2 14.89 .242 1.30 17.09 2.86
2015 17-1 15.02 .271 1.33 16.97 2.47
2016 18-0 15.37 .317 1.69 16.08 2.41
2017 16-2 14.81 .302 1.31 16.62 2.05
2018 18-0 14.45 .294 2.13 15.67 2.38
2019 17-1 14.61 .269 2.07 15.80 2.25
2020 7-1 12.93 .249 1.30 14.17 2.75
2021 16-2 13.95 .242 1.82 18.02 2.86
2022 17-1 14.80 .299 1.85 16.10 2.33
Sis Is Rolling
Sophomore Norah Sis owns 419 kills this season and 854 in her career.
The 854 kills is second-most ever by a Bluejay in their first two seasons, trailing only Jaali Winters' 994.
The 419 kills this season ranks fourth-most ever by a Bluejay sophomore. That record of 516 is held by Leah Ratzlaff.
Most Kills, After 2 Seasons at Creighton
Kills Yr1 Yr2 Name Year
994 546 448 Jaali Winters 2015 & 2016
854 435 419 Norah Sis 2021 & 2022
769 341 428 Melissa Walsh 1998 & 1999
733 270 463 Alicia Runge 2009 & 2010 (Jr. & Sr.)
696 180 516 Leah Ratzlaff 2002 & 2003
653 267 386 Jessica Houts 2005 & 2006
640 225 415 Amanda Cvejdlik 2005 & 2006
Most Kills, Creighton Sophomores
Kills Name Year
516 Leah Ratzlaff 2003
448 Jaali Winters 2016
428 Melissa Walsh 1999
419 Norah Sis 2022
415 Amanda Cvejdlik 2006
390 Taryn Kloth 2016
386 Jessica Houts 2006
376 Leah McNary 2012
350 Kelli Browning 2012
No Losers Here
Currently 25-4, Creighton has been nearly as good as anyone at avoiding losses in recent seasons.
BYU, Creighton, Louisville, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Texas, Towson, Western Kentucky and Wisconsin are the nation's only teams with five losses or less in the 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons.
If you go back two years more, the nation's only teams to lose six times or less in the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons are BYU, Creighton, Pittsburgh and Texas.
President Elect Booth
Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth has been voted the President-Elect of the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
Booth will begin her service on January 1, 2023 then become AVCA President in 2024. She will join the 17-member AVCA Board of Directors, which includes elected representatives, appointed voting members for Diversity Development and Legislation, and non-voting members for Education and Awards.
Booth will serve as President-Elect in 2023, be President in 2024 and 2025, and then finish out her term as Past President in 2026.
Booth is in her 20th season as the head women's volleyball coach at Creighton.
Putting The 0 In October And November
Creighton finished the month of October with a perfect 8-0 record, which included five sweeps and three 3-2 victories.
It's the fourth time in the past six fall seasons that Creighton has been unbeaten in October.
All told since October of 2014 Creighton is 65-5 in the 10th month of the year.
Creighton's been awfully good in the month of November too. Since the start of 2014, CU is 59-5 in the 11th month of the year.
Creighton has won 37 straight October home matches (since 10/15/11) and 31 consecutive home matches in November (since 11/23/14).
20/20 Vision
Creighton earned its 10th season of 20 or more wins in the past 11 seasons with a 3-0 win at St. John's on Oct. 30th. The only exception in that span was the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season (when CU only played 16 matches).
All 13 of Creighton's 20-win seasons since its 1994 reinstatement have come under the leadership of Kirsten Bernthal Booth. Before her arrival, CU had never won more than 16 matches in a single season.
Most Matches Won, Creighton Season
Year MP W L Pct. Coach
1. 2021 35 31 4 .886 Booth
2. 2012 33 29 4 .879 Booth
2018 34 29 5 .853 Booth
2016 36 29 7 .806 Booth
5. 2015 36 27 9 .750 Booth
6. 2017 33 26 7 .788 Booth
7. 2022 29 25 4 .862 Booth
2019 31 25 6 .806 Booth
2014 34 25 9 .735 Booth
10. 2013 32 23 9 .719 Booth
11. 2006 31 21 10 .677 Booth
2007 31 21 10 .667 Booth
2010 31 21 12 .636 Booth
14. 2004 29 18 11 .621 Booth
2008 27 18 9 .667 Booth
League Streak Reached 28
Before its Nov. 19 loss at No. 16 Marquette, Creighton had won 28 consecutive regular-season BIG EAST matches. That tied the program's second-longest win streak ever in league play.
During CU's 28-match league win streak, the Bluejays have dropped just eight sets, winning 84-of-92 sets.
Consecutive Regular-Season League Wins
Wins Dates Snapped By League
31 Nov. 18, 2017 - Nov. 3, 2019 at Villanova, 3-0 BIG EAST
28 Oct. 31, 2015 - Sept. 30, 2017 at Marquette, 3-0 BIG EAST
28 Oct. 17, 2021- Nov. 18, 2022 at #16 Marquette, 3-0 BIG EAST
14 Sept. 29, 2012 - End of 2012 Never (left MVC) MVC
12 Sept. 20-Oct. 25, 2015 at Villanova, 3-2 BIG EAST
11 Oct. 11-Nov. 21, 2014 Seton Hall, 3-0 BIG EAST
11 Oct. 6-Nov. 12, 2017 at Villanova, 3-0 BIG EAST
9 Nov. 4, 2005-Sept. 30, 2006 Northern Iowa, 3-2 MVC
Dealing Up Aces
Keeley Davis had nine aces in the final regular-season home weekend of her career (Nov. 11-13), helping her break a 21-year old school record for career aces that had been held by Molly Moran.
Davis reached 100 career aces in her 82nd career contest on Aug. 26 vs. Wichita State, which ranks third-fastest in Bluejay history.
Davis is the first player in Creighton history with multiple seasons of 50 or more service aces.
It's also worth noting that three of Davis' teammates entered the year having owned more than 100 career aces, though they've done so at other schools. Bethany Clapp owned 103 aces in 97 matches at Incarnate Word, Jazz Schmidt had 103 aces in 96 matches at Division II Palm Beach Atlantic and Allison Whitten had 103 aces in 115 contests at Morehead State.
Service Aces, Career
Name Sets No. Years
1. Keeley Davis 378 148 2019-Pr.
2. Molly Moran 341 145 1998-01
3. Melissa Weisensee 411 125 1994-97
4. Brittany Witt 471 122 2016-19
5. JoDe Cieloha 398 113 1994-97
6. Kate Elman 464 105 2012-15
7. Shelly Kapler 388 104 1996-99
8. Jaali Winters 494 101 2015-18
9. Madelyn Cole 225 93 2018-19
10. Carolyn Decker 300 89 2004-08
Creighton's Quickest Players To 100 Aces (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Molly Moran 73 08/31/01 vs. DePaul
Melissa Weisensee 77 11/01/96 Southern Illinois
Keeley Davis 82 08/26/22 vs. Wichita St.
JoDe Cieloha 85 09/06/97 at UNLV
Shelly Kapler 95 10/15/99 Bradley
Brittany Witt 107 10/05/19 Seton Hall
Kate Elman 120 11/15/15 Butler
Jaali Winters 135 11/17/18 Providence
Schmitt A Ki Player
Kiana Schmitt entered the 2022 season with three career matches (of 60 played) with 10 or more kills, but the senior already has 11 matches in double-figures this fall.
Schmitt owns a career-high with 16 kills vs. DePaul on Oct. 16.
Creighton is 40-5 all-time when Schmitt has six or more kills. CU is also 19-0 all-time when she owns four or more blocks.
Poll Road Ahead
Creighton has been ranked in each of the last 28 AVCA Top 25 polls. With little movement from week-to-week, however, CU is one of 19 teams to be ranked each of those polls, a group that includes Baylor, BYU, Creighton, Florida, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Pitt, Purdue, Stanford, Texas, Washington, Western Kentucky and Wisconsin.
Creighton has been ranked in all but six of the past 97 weeks the AVCA has put out a Top 25 poll.
Whitten Passes 500 Sets
Allison Whitten enters this weekend having appeared in 523 career sets, though the first 417 of those came at Morehead State from 2018-21.
By comparison, the only Bluejay in history to play in 500 or more sets was Lauren Smith, who appeared in a program-record 511 sets with the Jays from 2013-16. Last year Abby Bottomley completed her career with 517 sets played, including 403 at High Point.
Taking The Fifth
Creighton is 67-35 in five-set matches under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. That's impressive since Creighton had never finished a season with a winning record in fifth sets prior to Booth's arrival.
Creighton has won 18 of its last 25 true road matches to go five sets, including wins in 2012 over league rivals Northern Iowa, Wichita State and Missouri State, wins in 2013 at Denver and at Wichita State, wins in 2014 at Butler and at St. John's, a win at Georgetown in 2015, an NCAA Tournament win at No. 4 Kansas in 2016, 2017 victories at Butler, Georgetown and Marquette, a 2018 win at Butler, wins at UNI and No. 10 Marquette in 2019, at South Dakota in the 2020 campaign and at Omaha and UConn in 2022.
It's also worth noting that Creighton is 17-4 all-time in five-set home matches at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Creighton's five victories in five-set matches this season ties a program record also done in 2003, 2011 and 2015.
Below is a list of Creighton's record in five-set matches on a yearly basis:
Year Set 5 W-L Total W-L
1994 0-2 5-20
1995 0-2 11-19
1996 2-6 9-19
1997 3-5 15-13
1998 2-3 7-18
1999 3-3 13-15
2000 3-3 16-12
2001 1-1 14-13
2002 1-3 3-23
2003 5-1 12-18
2004 4-0 18-11
2005 3-1 16-14
2006 4-2 21-10
2007 2-0 21-10
2008 2-3 18-9
2009 1-4 14-17
2010 3-3 21-12
2011 5-2 17-14
2012 4-1 29-4
2013 3-2 23-9
2014 3-2 25-9
2015 5-2 27-9
2016 4-3 29-7
2017 4-1 26-7
2018 3-2 29-5
2019 2-1 25-6
2020 4-2 12-4
2021 1-1 31-4
2022 5-2 25-4
Total 82-63 532-335
Bouncing Back
The Creighton staff is quick to credit athletic performance coach Brad Schmidt for helping the team get stronger during the off-season and maintain that strength during the season.
Need evidence of that? Creighton has played seven five-set matches so far this season. Not only is Creighton 5-2 in five-setters this fall, but the Jays are also 7-0 this year in the contest after a five-setter.
Dating to last season, Creighton has won 12 straight matches following a five-set match and are 17-1 in the match following a five-setter since Aug. 25, 2018.
2-0 Better Than 0-2
Creighton is 364-11 (.971) all-time when leading a match 2-0, including a 307-5 mark (.984) under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. CU is 231-3 when up 2-0 dating to September of 2009, and 119-1 all-time at D.J. Sokol Arena when up 2-0 at the break.
Per RichKern.com, Division I teams that won the first two sets won 95.0 percent of their matches from 2009-18.
Conversely, the Jays are 17-204 (.077) all-time when trailing a match 0-2, and 15-105 (.125) under Booth.
One of those comebacks came on Oct. 7, 2022 at UConn, which was CU's first comeback win on the road in league play after trailing 0-2 since 2015. CU then overcame an 0-2 home deficit on Oct. 14, vs. No. 16 Marquette, the first such comeback against a ranked foe. Combined, the UConn and Marquette comebacks mark the first time in program history the team has posted multiple reverse sweeps in the same month.
Those 17 comebacks in program history from down 0-2 are listed below.
Date Opponent Sets 3-5 scores Coach
09/19/97 at Bradley 15-11, 15-13, 15-8 Wallace
10/01/99 at Drake 15-6, 17-15, 15-11 Wallace
09/03/04 vs. Montana 30-20, 30-21, 15-11 Booth
10/15/04 at Bradley 30-22, 30-23, 15-11 Booth
10/15/05 at So. Illinois 30-25, 30-24, 15-8 Booth
09/21/07 at No. Iowa 31-29, 30-26, 15-12 Booth
11/16/12 at Wichita St. 25-16, 25-20, 16-14 Booth
09/05/14 vs. No. Iowa 25-16, 25-22, 15-5 Booth
11/08/14 at Butler 25-16, 25-20, 15-13 Booth
09/20/15 Kansas State 25-23, 26-24, 15-13 Booth
10/09/15 DePaul 25-21, 25-12, 15-11 Booth
11/20/15 at Georgetown 30-28, 26-24, 15-7 Booth
10/13/17 Butler 25-21, 25-23, 15-9 Booth
10/18/18 Xavier 25-17, 25-17, 15-13 Booth
01/31/21 at So. Dakota 25-20, 25-23, 15-7 Booth
10/07/22 at UConn 25-15, 25-12, 15-13 Booth
10/14/22 #16 Marquette 25-19, 25-16, 15-8 Booth
Didn't Have To Wait Long
Creighton sophomore Kendra Wait became the ninth player in program history to reach 2,000 career sets when she did so on Oct. 16 vs. DePaul.
Wait needed 54 matches to reach the milestone, sixth-fastest in program history. The five women ahead of her combined to win First Team All-Conference honors nine times.
Wait reached 1,000 assists this season on Nov. 4 in CU's 24th match of the fall.
Creighton's Quickest Players To 2,000 Assists (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Korie Lebeda 43 09/22/06 Drake
Brittany Coleman 45 10/02/04 Southern Illinois
Kailey Reyes 49 09/01/00 at Iowa State
Lydia Dimke 52 10/13/17 Butler
Madelyn Cole 53 10/25/19 at Providence
Kendra Wait 54 10/16/22 DePaul
Megan Bober 55 11/05/10 at Wichita State
Melissa Weisensee 66 09/15/96 at UMKC
Michelle Sicner 109 11/23/14 Seton Hall
Single-Season Matches to 1,000 Assists
Name MP Opponent Year
Korie Lebeda 21 at Drake 2006
Brittany Coleman 22 at Southern Illinois 2004
Korie Lebeda 23 Missouri State 2005
Brittany Coleman 23 Northern Iowa 2003
Kailey Reyes 23 at Southern Illinois 1999
Melissa Weisensee 23 at Evansville 1996
Kailey Reyes 24 at Wichita State 2000
Melissa Weisensee 24 at Evansville 1997
Kendra Wait 24 Providence 2022
Kailey Reyes 25 Wichita State 2001
Korie Lebeda 25 Southern Illinois 2007
Korie Lebeda 26 Bradley 2008
Lydia Dimke 26 Xavier 2016
Madelyn Cole 26 at Seton Hall 2018
Megan Bober 27 Evansville 2010
Lydia Dimke 27 Georgetown 2017
Madelyn Cole 27 #9 Marquette 2019
Megan Bober 28 at Northern Iowa 2009
Megan Bober 28 at Wichita State 2012
Michelle Sicner 28 Xavier 2013
Kendra Wait 29 at Villanova 2021
Maggie Baumert 32 vs. Seton Hall 2014
105 Weeks As A Ranked Team
Creighton is ranked this week for the 105th time in program history. That's 43rd-most of all programs in NCAA history.
All 105 rankings have occurred since 2012 and under the direction of Kirsten Bernthal Booth.
Not Much Middle Ground
Of Creighton's last 23 matches, there's been seven five-set matches and 15 sweeps. Only one of those contests has been exactly four sets.
Creighton is 5-2 this year in five-set matches, 4-1 in four-setters and 15-1 in sweeps.
Creighton is averaging 18.63 digs per set and 14.17 assists per set in contests to go five sets this season. Kiara Reinhardt hits .349 in those matches, while Norah Sis averages 4.14 kills per set.
Creighton is 45-2 in its last 47 matches to last exactly three sets.
Welcome Back Jaela
Jaela Zimmerman made her 2022 debut on Sept. 30 when she checked in to serve set point in Creighton's 25-15 set one victory over Butler.
She made her second appearance on Oct. 8 on match point at Providence, and promptly dialed up her first ace of the season.
The pressure level upped a notch on Oct. 16 when she was inserted into the fifth set with the score tied at 7-all. She earned her first dig of the season immediately and served a 3-0 run as the Jays took the lead for good in the 15-11 win.
Zimmerman saw her first front row action of the season on Oct. 22 at Georgetown and earned her first kill of 2022 on Oct. 28 at Seton Hall, the 998th of her career.
A two-time AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and three-time All-BIG EAST selection, Zimmerman tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in Creighton's NCAA Tournament win vs. Ole Miss on Dec. 2, 2021 and underwent surgery five weeks later.
Jae-Z Plays The Hits
Jaela Zimmerman owns 1,000 kills, good for a tie for 14th in Creighton history. She reached the milestone in her 111th career match on Nov. 13 on her Senior Day vs. Seton Hall.
Career Kills
Name Sets No. Years
1. Jaali Winters 494 1,843 2015-18
2. Leah Ratzlaff 409 1,622 2002-05
3. Melissa Walsh 394 1,596 1998-01
4. Taryn Kloth 462 1,427 2015-18
5. Kelly Goc 394 1,414 2004-07
6. Jessica Houts 451 1,385 2005-09
7. JoDe Cieloha 398 1,375 1994-97
8. Leah McNary 458 1,257 2011-14
9. Marysa Wilkinson 499 1,183 2014-17
10. Lauren Smith 511 1,160 2013-16
11. Allie Oelke 445 1,126 2007-10
12. Kelli Browning 424 1,104 2011-14
13. Amanda Cvejdlik 343 1,029 2005-08
14. Shelly Kapler 388 1,000 1996-99
Jaela Zimmerman 355 1,000 2018-Pr.
Creighton's Quickest Players To 1,000 Career Kills
Name MP Date Opponent
Melissa Walsh 70 10/15/00 Eastern Illinois
Jaali Winters 73 08/25/17 vs. Saint Mary's
Leah Ratzlaff 76 10/22/04 Missouri State
JoDe Cieloha 83 09/13/97 at Drake
Kelly Goc 87 11/24/06 vs Northern Iowa
Jessica Houts 90 11/08/08 Illinois State
Leah McNary 96 09/12/14 Pepperdine
Amanda Cvejdlik 99 11/15/08 at Evansville
Shelly Kapler 103 11/18/99 vs. Missouri St.
Taryn Kloth 103 08/31/18 vs. NC State
Allie Oelke 107 10/09/10 Wichita State
Kelli Browning 110 10/26/14 DePaul
Jaela Zimmerman 111 11/13/22 Seton Hall
Lauren Smith 119 10/07/16 at Villanova
Marysa Wilkinson 120 09/30/17 at St. John's
Home Sweet Home
Creighton is in its 10th season as a member of the BIG EAST since joining the league in the summer of 2013.
Since then, the Bluejays are 90-4 in home matches against BIG EAST teams (83-3 in the regular-season, 7-1 in the BIG EAST Tournament).
Since November of 2014, Creighton is 74-1 inside D.J. Sokol Arena against BIG EAST teams, which includes a 68-1 league mark and a 6-0 mark in the conference tournament. The only setback (on Feb. 6, 2021 vs. Marquette) was played as a non-conference match, only to be flipped to a league contest 19 days later.
Put another way, since enrolling at Creighton in 2018, Bluejay fifth-year senior Jaela Zimmerman is 45-1 in home matches against BIG EAST teams, and 135-22 in sets.
Hall Call
Megan (Bober) Varasteh entered the Creighton Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday, Oct. 15th, at a banquet at Hilton Omaha.
Varasteh was part of the 54th class of inductees (along with Renae Sinkler-O'Gorman and Carol Ketcham) and gives the Creighton Athletics Hall of Fame 94 inductees, plus the 1991 Creighton Baseball Team. The Athletics Hall of Fame started in 1968 with the induction of Bluejay great Bob Gibson.
Varasteh starred as a member of the Creighton Volleyball program from 2008-12, becoming the program's first player in earn AVCA All-America honors multiple times. She became the volleyball program's first woman named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year as well as MVC Tournament MVP, helping the Bluejays to their first regular-season and conference tournament titles and a then-record 29 victories. She closed her career with a school-record 15 triple-doubles (second in MVC history) and as the only player in league history with at least 4,000 assists, 1,000 digs, 800 kills and 400 blocks.
She joined Melissa Walsh (2009), Korie Lebeda (2014) and Kelli Browning (2021) as the only Creighton Volleyball players to be inducted.
In addition to being named Creighton's Female Athlete of the Year, she was also recognized as the Carl M. Reinert, S.J., Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, repeated her spot on the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team and was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American Second Team selection as a senior.
The last win of Bober's career was a 3-0 sweep over Marquette in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
Defense Delivers
Creighton has had its way in the BIG EAST thanks to dominant defense in recent times.
Twenty of CU's last 27 BIG EAST opponents have hit lower than .120.
The only team to hit better than .177 in that time was Marquette's .207 on Oct. 14 and its .274 on Nov. 19.
Over the past 27 matches versus league opposition, Creighton opponents are hitting .106 (862-536-3067 in 88 sets) and averaging just 9.80 kills per set.
Date Opponent (CU Result) K-E-TA Pct.
10/30/21 at DePaul (W 3-0) 35-25-127 .079
11/05/21 Xavier (W 3-0) 35-14-119 .176
11/07/21 Butler (W 3-1) 45-30-177 .085
11/12/21 at Georgetown (W 3-0) 24-22-116 .017
11/13/21 at Villanova (W 3-0) 24-13-94 .117
11/19/21 Seton Hall (W 3-0) 16-20-87 -.046
11/21/21 St. John's (W 3-0) 25-22-105 .029
11/26/21 vs. DePaul (W 3-0) 33-24-102 .088
11/27/21 at Marquette (W 3-0) 34-24-121 .083
09/23/22 Georgetown (W 3-0) 18-12-98 .061
09/25/22 Villanova (W 3-0) 29-21-89 .090
09/28/22 Xavier (W 3-0) 24-18-101 .059
09/30/22 Butler (W 3-0) 32-19-120 .108
10/07/22 at UConn (W 3-2) 52-29-160 .144
10/08/22 at Providence (W 3-0) 25-14-99 .111
10/14/22 #16 Marquette (W 3-2) 59-21-184 .207
10/16/22 DePaul (W 3-2) 53-33-176 .114
10/21/22 at Villanova (W 3-0) 26-16-110 .091
10/22/22 at Georgetown (W 3-0) 25-18-85 .082
10/28/22 at Seton Hall (W 3-0) 22-14-99 .081
10/30/22 at St. John's (W 3-0) 42-23-109 .174
11/04/22 Providence (W 3-0) 20-13-83 .084
11/06/22 Connecticut (W 3-0) 36-20-114 .140
11/11/22 St. John's (W 3-0) 28-14-91 .154
11/13/22 Seton Hall (W 3-0) 20-15-89 .056
11/18/22 at DePaul (W 3-0) 36-29-119 .059
11/19/22 at #16 Marquette (L 0-3) 44-13-113 .274
Down For The Count
Creighton has outscored teams 1,443-1,031 in league play this season and has allowed a BIG EAST opponent score more than 18 points in just 20 of the 60 sets played.
20 At A Time For Sis
Norah Sis had 27 kills in a 3-2 win at UConn on Oct. 7, one shy of her career-high done in September in a 3-2 win vs. Florida State.
On Oct. 14 and 16 Sis had 21 kills vs. Marquette, then provided 22 more two days later vs. DePaul. More recently, she had 20 kills at St. John's on Oct. 30 in just three sets.
Sis is one of six players in program history with multiple matches of 25 or more kills. Her 11 career matches of 20 or more kills ranks fifth-most.
Most Matches With 25+ Kills, Creighton Career
25+K Name Years
8 Melissa Walsh 1998-01
6 Leah Ratzlaff 2002-05
6 Jaali Winters 2015-18
3 Taryn Kloth 2015-18
2 Jessica Houts 2005-09
2 Norah Sis 2021-Present
1 Michelle Prorock 1994-96
1 JoDe Cieloha 1994-97
1 Shelly Kapler 1996-99
1 Melanie Keolanui 1997-00
1 Kelly Goc 2004-07
1 Alicia Runge 2009-10
1 Keeley Davis 2019-Present
Matches With 20+ Kills, Career
20+K Name Years
23 Melissa Walsh 1998-01
20 Leah Ratzlaff 2002-05
18 Jaali Winters 2015-18
13 Kelly Goc 2004-07
11 Norah Sis 2021-Present
10 JoDe Cieloha 1994-97
7 Taryn Kloth 2015-18
5 Jessica Houts 2005-09
5 Leah McNary 2011-14
Matches With 20+ Kills, Season
20+K Name Year
11 Leah Ratzlaff 2003
9 Leah Ratzlaff 2004
9 Jaali Winters 2015
8 Melissa Walsh 2000
7 Melissa Walsh 1999
7 Norah Sis 2022
6 Kelly Goc 2006
6 Jaali Winters 2016
5 Kelly Goc 2007
5 Taryn Kloth 2018
Wait, How Is That Possible?
Only 16 players in the nation average 11.00 assists per set. Of those 16, only Creighton's Kendra Wait averages more than 3.00 digs per set.
Wait is averaging 11.04 assists and 3.22 digs per set this fall.
Let's Get It Started
Creighton has won its first 16 league matches in 2022 and has now started 11-0 (or better) in league play in five of the past eight seasons.
During four of the previous seven seasons, Creighton started BIG EAST play 11-0 or better.
Year League Wins Before First Loss Lost To
2013 0 at Butler
2014 5 at Seton Hall
2015 11 at Villanova
2016 18 --
2017 4 at Marquette
2018 18 --
2019 12 at Villanova
2020 1 #25 Marquette
2021 2 at St. John's
2022 17 at #16 Marquette
Set Streaks
How often had Creighton previously won each of its first 12 sets of a BIG EAST season before this year? How about never?
Only once previously had Creighton even won its first six sets in league play, and that came during the 2018 season where CU went 18-0 and dropped just 6-of-60 sets in league play all season. The most league sets won in a row to start a season had come in 2011, when Creighton won its first eight sets played. That team finished 12-6 in Missouri Valley Conference action.
Year Set Wins Before First Set Loss Set Lost To
2013 1 at Butler
2014 5 Butler
2015 1 Seton Hall
2016 4 DePaul
2017 2 Georgetown
2018 7 at Butler
2019 5 Georgetown
2020 1 #25 Marquette
2021 2 at Butler
2022 12 --
BIG EAST Preseason Poll
Creighton Volleyball was picked to win the BIG EAST in a preseason poll of league coaches.
Creighton earned 9-of-11 first place votes and 99 of a possible 100 points. That was just ahead of Marquette's 90 points and the other two votes for first place.
DePaul (72) was picked third, just ahead of UConn (71) and St. John's (66). Rounding out the bottom half of the poll were Villanova (54), Butler (47), Xavier (42), Georgetown (25), Providence (25) and Seton Hall (14).
Creighton also had three women among the 12 members on the BIG EAST's preseason all-conference team in Jaela Zimmerman and Kendra Wait as well as unanimous selection Norah Sis. Sis was also tabbed the BIG EAST's Preseason Player of the Year.
Creighton has finished in the spot predicted of it or better in the preseason poll in 17 of 19 years under Kirsten Bernthal Booth, including nine years where it's finished exactly where it was picked.
Year Preseason Pick Finish Move
1994 11th 9th #2
1995 9th 7th #2
1996 9th 6th #3
1997 8th 3rd #5
1998 6th 8th i2
1999 T-7th 5th #2
2000 4th T-4th - -
2001 2nd 4th i2
2002 7th 9th i2
2003 9th T-5th #4
2004 5th 5th - -
2005 5th 5th - -
2006 4th 4th - -
2007 3rd T-2nd #1
2008 3rd 2nd #1
2009 4th T-4th - -
2010 4th 3rd #1
2011 3rd 4th i1
2012 4th 1st #3
2013 1st T-2nd i1
2014 1st 1st - -
2015 1st 1st - -
2016 1st 1st - -
2017 1st 1st - -
2018 2nd 1st #1
2019 2nd 1st #1
2020 1st (MW) 1st (MW) - -
2021 1st 1st - -
2022 1st T-1st - -
Wait Making History
Just nine days after she had 59 assists and 36 digs against Florida State, Kendra Wait had 56 assists and 24 digs on Sept. 18 at Rice.
Wait is the first Bluejay with a match of at least 50 assists and 20 digs in a match since Korie Lebeda in 2006, and first Bluejay since Kailey Reyes (in 1999) to post multiple matches of at least 50 assists and 20 digs in the same season.
No Creighton player has ever done it three times in the same season.
50 Assists, 20 Digs In A Match
A D Name Opp. Date
51 21 Melissa Weisensee at Wichita State (5s) 9/14/96
53 24 Melissa Weisensee at Indiana State (5s) 10/18/96
65 22 Melissa Weisensee at Evansville (5s) 11/8/97
55 28 Kailey Reyes Evansville (5s) 9/11/99
65 24 Kailey Reyes Illinois State (4s) 9/24/99
64 23 Kailey Reyes at Evansville (5s) 11/4/00
54 22 Brittany Coleman at Illinois State (4s) 10/18/03
62 21 Brittany Coleman at So. Illinois (4s) 10/29/04
71 20 Korie Lebeda at Evansville (5s) 11/18/06
59 36 Kendra Wait vs. Florida State (5s) 9/9/22
56 24 Kendra Wait at Rice (5s) 9/18/22
All That Jazz
Jazz Schmidt had just 25 kills in Creighton's first 10 matches of the season before she erupted for a season-high 17 kills on Sept. 18 at Rice.
Schmidt's 17 kills were the most by a left-handed Bluejay since Megan Bober owned 19 kills at Southern Illinois on Oct. 21, 2011.
Sis Swings Away
Norah Sis obliterated Creighton's school-record of 77 attack attempts in a match (held by Jaali Winters) when she had 93 swings in CU's 3-2 win vs. Florida State on Sept. 9.
Sis' 93 attacks are the second-most in the nation by a player this season.
More From Sept. 9
Creighton's 129 digs vs. Florida State were two shy of its school record and second-most in the nation this year for a single match. CU's only match with more was 131 vs. Illinois State on Oct. 13, 2000.
Creighton's 254 attack attempts rank as its second-most in program history. The only match with more came Oct. 14, 2000 vs. Indiana State (296).
Norah Sis' 28 kills vs. Florida State are tied for fourth-most in program history, and four away from Michelle Prorock's school record set in 1996.
Whitten Surpasses 2,000 Digs
Creighton libero Allison Whitten surpassed 2,000 career digs on Sept. 18 at Rice, as she had 24 digs on the afternoon.
The grad transfer had 1,823 digs in four seasons at Morehead State and leads CU with 413 digs this season, giving her 2,237 in her career.
By comparison, the top two women in digs at Creighton (only) are Brittany Witt (2,079 from 2016-19) and Kate Elman (2,054 from 2012-15).
Last year's Bluejay libero, Abby Bottomley, finished her career seventh in NCAA history with 2,711 career digs, though the first 2,158 digs came while at High Point from 2017-20.
Whitten has seven or more digs in all 29 contests this fall.
My Favorite Martin
Ava Martin opened her BIG EAST career with 10 kills (Sept. 23 vs. Georgetown), 11 kills (Sept. 25 vs. Villanova), 14 kills (Sept. 28 vs. Xavier) and 14 kills (Sept. 30 vs. Butler), helping her earn back-to-back BIG EAST Freshman of the Week accolades.
She was the first Bluejay freshman to open her BIG EAST career with four straight matches of 10 or more kills, and just the third in program history to do so in any conference.
Martin had her first career double-double vs. No. 16 Marquette when she had 18 kills and 12 digs on Oct. 14.
Allie Oelke did it in four straight matches in 2007 and JoDe Cieloha set the record that still stands with five straight matches in 1994. Both of those came in the Missouri Valley Conference.
CU Freshmen With 10+ Kills to Start League Play
Streak Name Year
5 JoDe Cieloha 1994
4 Allie Oelke 2007
4 Ava Martin 2022
3 Rachelle Von 1997
3 Melissa Walsh 1998
3 Jaali Winters 2015
2 Michelle Prorock 1994
2 Carolyn Decker 2004
2 Jessica Houts 2005
2 Melanie Jereb 2012
15,797 Fans!
No. 17 Creighton hosted 15,797 fans on Sept. 7 against No. 2 Nebraska, setting a record for the largest regular-season volleyball-only crowd in NCAA history. The mark stood for all of nine days before Wisconsin hosted 16,833 fans for a match vs. Florida.
Here's a look at the top volleyball-only regular-season crowds in NCAA history. Of note, 13 of the top 14 figures of 11,000 or more have been in the state of Nebraska.
Largest Regular-Season Volleyball-Only Crowds in NCAA History
Att. Opponent, Result Date Site
16,833 Florida def. Wisconsin 9/16/22 Madison, WI
15,797 Nebraska def. Creighton, 3-2 9/7/22 Omaha, NE
14,022 Nebraska def. Creighton, 3-2 9/6/18 Omaha, NE
13,870 UCLA def. Nebraska, 3-2 9/13/09 Lincoln, NE
13,412 Nebraska def. LSU, 3-0 9/12/08 Lincoln, NE
13,396 Nebraska def. Hawai'i, 3-0 10/21/07 Lincoln, NE
13,081 Cal Poly def. Creighton, 3-0 9/2/07 Omaha, NE
Nebraska def. Penn State, 3-0
12,504 Nebraska def. Colorado, 3-0 11/4/00 Lincoln, NE
12,112 Nebraska def. Creighton, 3-1 9/24/06 Omaha, NE
11,892 Dayton def. W. Michigan, 3-0 9/11/10 Lincoln, NE
Nebraska def. Illinois, 3-2
11,529 Nebraska def. Colorado, 3-0 10/22/95 Lincoln, NE
11,279 Nebraska def. Creighton, 3-0 09/08/21 Omaha, NE
11,076 Nebraska def. UCLA, 3-1 8/25/07 Omaha, NE
Tennessee def. Utah, 3-2
11,032 UCLA def. Nebraska, 3-1 9/14/91 Lincoln, NE
10,927 Minnesota def. Illinois, 3-1 10/16/04 Minneapolis, MN
10,645 Purdue def. W. Michigan, 3-1 10/29/85 W. Lafayette, IN
10,576 Penn St. def. Hawai'i, 3-0 8/27/05 Omaha, NE
Nebraska def. Stanford, 3-0
10,570 Purdue def. Wisconsin, 3-2 10/17/08 W. Lafayette, IN
Sis Races Past 500, 600 & 700 Kills
Sophomore Norah Sis is one of the fastest players in CU history to 500, 600, 700 and 800 career kills.
Creighton's Quickest Players To 500 Kills (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Jaali Winters 34 12/04/15 vs. Coastal Carolina
Melissa Walsh 37 09/25/99 Indiana State
Norah Sis 40 09/03/22 #16 Kentucky
JoDe Cieloha 43 10/15/95 at Indiana State
Keeley Davis 43 03/28/21 Xavier
Amanda Cvejdlik 44 10/13/06 at Wichita State
Creighton's Quickest Players To 600 Kills (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Jaali Winters 41 09/03/16 at USC
Melissa Walsh 42 10/09/99 at Wichita State
Norah Sis 45 09/17/22 vs. Kansas State
Leah Ratzlaff 52 11/14/03 Illinois State
JoDe Cieloha 53 08/30/96 Murray State
Amanda Cvejdlik 53 11/17/06 at Southern Illinois
Creighton's Quickest Players To 700 Kills (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Melissa Walsh 49 11/06/99 Missouri State
Jaali Winters 50 09/25/16 DePaul
Norah Sis 53 10/14/22 #16 Marquette
Leah Ratzlaff 57 09/03/04 vs. Montana
JoDe Cieloha 61 09/14/96 at Wichita State
Alicia Runge 62 11/27/10 at Northern Iowa
Creighton's Quickest Players To 800 Kills (Career)
Name MP Date Opponent
Melissa Walsh 56 09/02/00 vs. UNCG
Jaali Winters 59 10/28/16 at Seton Hall
Norah Sis 59 11/04/22 Providence
Leah Ratzlaff 64 09/14/04 at Iowa
JoDe Cieloha 68 10/11/96 Bradley
10 Straight NCAA's
Creighton Volleyball has made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last 10 seasons. They are the first women's team in any sport at Creighton to make 10 straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
The only other sport in Creighton history to make 10 straight NCAA Tournament appearances is the men's soccer program, which qualified in 17 straight seasons from 1992-2008.
Creighton is one of nine teams nationally to have appeared in each of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments (2012-21). That group features BYU, Creighton, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, Penn State, San Diego, Texas and Washington.
There are also 13 schools that have appeared in 11 of the last 12 NCAA Tournaments, a group that includes Creighton, Florida State, Hawai'i, Minnesota, Purdue and Stanford.
Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, Penn State, San Diego, Texas and Washington have appeared in every NCAA Tournament since at least 2010.
Preseason Ranking
Creighton was ranked 18th in the AVCA preseason poll. It's the eighth time in the past 10 years that the Jays have been ranked in the preseason.
The No. 18 slotting was tied for the fourth-best preseason ranking in program history.
Over the previous 14 seasons, 255-of-350 teams (72.9 percent) of teams have been in both the preseason and final polls, and since 2008 318-of-350 teams (90.9 percent) in the preseason top-25 polls would go on to reach the NCAA Tournament.
This year marks the 11th straight season that CU has been ranked at least one week, extending a program record.
Year Preseason Rank Final W-L Final Rank
2013 25th 23-9 NR
2014 23rd 25-9 NR
2016 18th 27-9 9th
2017 9th 26-7 16th
2018 13th 29-5 13th
2019 18th 25-6 16th
2020 16th 12-4 NR
2022 18th TBD TBD
Some Fab Freshmen
Including Sky McCune on Aug. 26 vs. Iowa State, Creighton has started 15 different true freshmen in its season opener since 2009, and 19 such players since 2000.
Since 2000, the only true freshmen to start CU's season-opener have been Brittany Coleman (2003), Carolyn Decker (2004), Korie Lebeda (2005), Allie Oelke (2007), Brooke Boggs (2009), Heather Thorson (2009), Julianne Mandolfo (2010), Katie Neisler (2011), Michelle Sicner (2011), Melanie Jereb (2012), Ashley Jansen (2012), Jess Bird (2013), Jaali Winters (2015), Naomi Hickman (2017), Emily Bressman (2019), Kiara Reinhardt (2020), Kendra Wait (2021), Norah Sis (2021) and Sky McCune (2022), with Coleman, Lebeda and Wait the only freshmen to start at setter in the season-opener.
In addition, CU also started redshirt freshmen Lauren Smith (2013) and Brittany Lawrence (2015), as well as transfers Maggie Baumert (2014), Lydia Dimke (2016), Madelyn Cole (2018), Erica Kostelac (2019) and Mahina Pua'a (2020) in season-openers.
Ten of those women (Sis, Wait, Reinhardt, Coleman, Decker, Lebeda, Oelke, Mandolfo, Sicner and Jereb) went on to land a spot on the MVC or BIG EAST's All-Freshman Team (though the BIG EAST had no such team from 2013-19). Winters was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Year in 2015, Dimke was named BIG EAST Player of the Year in 2016, Davis was BIG EAST Freshman of the Year in 2019 and Sis recognized as BIG EAST Freshman of the Year in 2022.
Last year marked the first time that Creighton started multiple true freshmen in a season-opener since 2012, when Ashley Jansen and Melanie Jereb both earning a starting nod. The 2012 and 2021 teams are the two winningest single-season teams in program history.
Believe The Hype
Creighton's recruiting class of freshmen Morgan Colangelo, Ava Martin, Sky McCune and Ann Marie Remmes was recognized as the nation's No. 24 class by PrepVolleyball.
Martin was listed as the nation's No. 47 recruit, while McCune was tabbed 52nd-best. Creighton now owns eight players on its 2022 roster who were Top 100 recruits.
Top-100 PrepVolleyball.com Senior Aces
(list started in 2004)
Rank Year Player
68 2004 Carolyn Decker
55 2008 Laurel Sanford
60 2011 Michelle Sicner
73 2013 Jess Bird
50 2014 Lydia Dimke*
18 2015 Taryn Kloth
41 2015 Jaali Winters
77 2016 Erica Kostelac#
98 2017 Naomi Hickman
99 2017 Steph Gaston
49 2018 Jaela Zimmerman
42 2018 Keeley Davis
46 2020 Kiara Reinhardt
97 2020 Ellie Bolton
7 2021 Kendra Wait
28 2021 Norah Sis
31 2021 Eve Magill
47 2022 Ava Martin
52 2022 Sky McCune
* signed with Purdue and later transferred to Creighton
# signed with Cincinnati and later transferred to Creighton
PrepVolleyball.com Recruiting Rankings
(list started in 2004)
Year Rank Freshman Recruits
2004 Best of the Rest (Baumann, Decker, Goc, Lahm, Mehal)
2005 Honorable-Mention (Cvejdlik, Houts, Lebeda)
2006 None (Bloemke, Schulze, Workman)
2007 None (Feldman, Oelke, Vrbicky)
2008 Highest Honorable-Mention (Almgren, Bober, Sanford)
2009 Highest HM Boggs, Greisch, Moon, Templeton, Thorson)
2010 High HM (Fliss, Hackbarth, Malm, Mandolfo, S. Smith)
2011 Highest HM (Browning, McNary, Neisler, Sicner, Stivers)
2012 High Honorable-Mention (Elman, Jansen, Jereb, L. Smith)
2013 None (Bird, Crawford, Foje)
2014 Highest Honorable-Mention (Lawrence, Tupper, Wilkinson)
2015 11th (Ballenger, Bohnet, Kloth, O'Connell, Winters)
2016 High Honorable-Mention (Conlon, Taylor, Witt)
2017 25th (Gaston, Hickman, Roumeliotis)
2018 10th (Davis, Welty, Zimmerman, Zumach)
2019 Highest HM (Bressman, Krause, Schmitt, Van Eekeren)
2020 27th (Bolton, Maser, Reinhardt, Skovsende)
2021 5th (Magill, Milner, Sis, Wait)
2022 24th (Colangelo, Martin, McCune, Remmes)
Set 1 Result A Strong Indicator
Creighton is 371-33 (.918) overall under Kirsten Bernthal Booth when it wins set one. In that same time span, CU is just 68-150 (.312) under Booth when it drops the first set.
Per RichKern.com, Division I teams that lost the first set in 2018 won just 20.7 percent of their matches that season, and 20.2 percent of their matches from 2009-18.
Since Aug. 29, 2010, Creighton has gone 135-4 in its last 139 home matches when taking a 1-0 lead, losing only on Sept. 12, 2015 to Pacific, on Sept. 6, 2018 to No. 7 Nebraska and on Jan. 29, 2021 to South Dakota and on Sept. 3, 2022 to No. 16 Kentucky.
Creighton has gone 103-3 in its last 106 matches at all sites when winning the first set, compared to an 11-16 record in that same span when dropping the opener.
Creighton has gone 144-2 in its last 146 matches against unranked foes when winning the opening set.
Eleventh Heaven
Kirsten Bernthal Booth is in some select company, as she has directed her team to 11 NCAA Tournaments.
That puts her in the company of some of the greatest coaches in CU Athletics history, as she's tied former men's soccer coach Bob Warming atop that list.
Name Sport NCAA's @CU
Bob Warming Men's Soccer 11
Kirsten Bernthal Booth Volleyball 11
Dana Altman Men's Basketball 7
Greg McDermott Men's Basketball 7
Brent Vigness Softball 7
Elmar Bolowich Men's Soccer 6
Against NCAA Tournament Qualifiers
Last season Creighton played four matches against 2020 NCAA Tournament qualifiers, going 3-1 against such teams.
This year's team owns eight matches (Iowa State, Kentucky, Nebraska, Florida State, Kansas State, Rice and Marquette) scheduled against teams that made the 2021 NCAA Tournament, and CU is 4-4 against those foes to date.
After going 3-35 against teams coming off NCAA Tournament bids prior to Kirsten Bernthal Booth's arrival, the Jays are 93-105 since.
Year W-L vs. Previous Season NCAA Teams
1994 0-4
1995 0-2
1996 0-2
1997 0-3
1998 0-5
1999 2-4
2000 0-4
2001 1-6
2002 0-5
2003 0-3
2004 2-2
2005 0-6
2006 4-6
2007 4-9
2008 6-8
2009 1-11
2010 4-7
2011 2-6
2012 8-3
2013 6-6
2014 4-5
2015 11-5
2016 10-7
2017 8-6
2018 8-5
2019 5-4
2020 3-1
2021 3-1
2022 4-4 so far
TOTAL 96-140
TOTAL Under Booth 93-105
Marian Pipeline
This is the 20th straight season that Creighton Volleyball had at least one product of Omaha Marian High School on the roster, as senior Emily Bressman keeps the streak alive.
Interestingly, the Bluejays had never had a volleyball player from Marian between 1994-2002. Here's a look at Creighton's pipeline of players from Marian.
2022: Emily Bressman
2021: Emily Bressman
2020: Emily Bressman
2019: Emily Bressman, Brittany Witt
2018: Kelsey O'Connell, Brittany Witt
2017: Kelsey O'Connell, Brittany Witt
2016: Kelsey O'Connell, Brittany Witt
2015: Kate Elman, Ashley Jansen, Kelsey O'Connell
2014: Kate Elman, Ashley Jansen
2013: Kate Elman, Ashley Jansen
2012: Kate Elman, Ashley Jansen
2011: Julianne Mandolfo
2010: Lisa Greisch, Julianne Mandolfo
2009: Lisa Greisch
2008: Emily Crowley, Korie Lebeda
2007: Korie Lebeda, Katie Mehal
2006: Korie Lebeda, Katie Mehal, Emily Greisch
2005: Korie Lebeda, Katie Mehal
2004: Katie Mehal, Emily Greisch
2003: Emily Greisch
Survival of the Fittest
Creighton has won nine matches under Kirsten Bernthal Booth after surviving an opponent's match point, including season-opening wins over No. 5 Kentucky in 2018 and vs. UTSA in 2011. Three of those other comeback wins have come against Wichita State.
On the other hand, Creighton is 439-3 under Booth when it reaches a match point opportunity, falling only when it wasted two match points on Sept. 4, 2010 to Iowa, two match points on Nov. 1, 2013 in a loss to St. John's, and two match points on Dec. 7, 2019 in an NCAA Tournament loss at No. 7 Minnesota.
Surviving Match Points, Under Booth
Date Opponent MP(s) Faced Final Set 5
08/30/03 vs. McNeese State 13-14, 15-16 18-16
10/10/03 Wichita State 13-14 16-14
10/13/06 at Wichita State 12-14, 13-14, 14-15 17-15
09/11/07 at Drake 13-14, 14-15 17-15
08/26/11 vs. UTSA 12-14, 13-14 16-14
11/16/12 at Wichita State 13-14 16-14
09/20/15 Kansas State 23-24 (4th set) 15-13
11/20/15 at Georgetown 23-24, 26-27 (4th set) 15-7
08/24/18 vs. #5 Kentucky 16-15, 19-18 22-20
Climbing The List
Kirsten Bernthal Booth became Creighton Volleyball's winningest coach in the program's modern history on August 26, 2007, and hasn't let up. Booth owns 439 victories on the Bluejay sideline to rank fifth in school history across all sports.
Coach, Sport Victories (thru 11/21)
Brent Vigness, Softball 819
Ed Servais, Baseball 618*
Mary Higgins, Softball 564
Tom Lilly, Men's & Women's Tennis 498*
Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Volleyball 439*
Jim Flanery, Women's Basketball 391*
Ed Hubbs, Men's & Women's Tennis 347
Dana Altman, Men's Basketball 327
*still active coaching at Creighton
League Opener Histories
Including its Sept. 23 sweep of Georgetown, Creighton owns a 21-8 record all-time in conference openers, including an 18-2 record under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. That includes a 9-1 mark in BIG EAST lid-lifters, and nine straight wins.
Including 2022, each of the last 10 times that Creighton won its league opener (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022), the Bluejays went on to win the regular-season title, going a combined 161-11 in regular-season league action. Creighton also won eight of the previous nine conference tournament titles (entering 2022) during those years, going 16-1 in those seasons.
In the 20 seasons that Creighton has won its conference opener, it has never finished worse than .500 in league play and it owns a combined .775 (290-84) winning percentage (including 2022) in league matches.
In the eight years in which Creighton lost its league opener, the Bluejays have had a losing record on five occasions and owns a combined .363 (53-93) winning percentage during league contests.
In conference home openers, Creighton is 24-5 overall and 18-2 under Booth, with 12 straight wins.
In league road openers, Creighton is 20-9 overall and 17-3 under Booth, with nine straight wins.
Year-By-Year In Non-Conference Play
Despite annually facing one of the nation's toughest non-conference schedules, Creighton has continued to excel against elite competition.
Creighton is 8-12 against ranked non-conference foes over the last five seasons after going 2-43 all-time vs. ranked teams in regular-season non-conference matches.
Creighton owned 12 non-conference wins last season to set a program record for a regular-season. It's actually also the first season with 10 wins prior to league play.
Non-Conference Records, By Year, Under Booth
Year Non-Con W-L vs. Ranked Non-Con Final W-L
2003 3-8 0-0 12-18
2004 8-2 0-1 18-11
2005 6-5 0-3 16-14
2006 8-3 0-1 21-10
2007 6-5 0-3 21-10
2008 3-5 0-3 18-9
2009 3-8 0-3 14-17
2010 5-5 0-1 21-12
2011 5-7 0-1 17-14
2012 9-2 0-1 29-4
2013 9-3 1-2 23-9
2014 7-6 0-5 25-9
2015 6-7 1-4 27-9
2016 6-6 0-4 29-7
2017 7-4 3-3 26-7
2018 8-4 1-3 29-5
2019 7-3 2-3 25-6
2020 3-2 0-0 12-4
2021 12-1 1-1 31-4
2022 8-3 1-2 TBD
Production Returns
Creighton returns 11-of-16 letterwinners to the court from last season, including four starters
From last year's team, only Abby Bottomley, Naomi Hickman, Eve Magill, Ally Van Eekeren, Annika Welty are not back.
All told, of the seven categories listed below, Creighton returns 511.8 of a possible 700% back (73.1 percent).
Below is a breakdown of the production that is back:
Stat Returners Departures
Assists 1,331 (87.4%) 192 (12.6%)
Kills 1,307 (80.2%) 323 (19.8%)
Points 1,627.0 (75.6%) 526.0 (24.4%)
Matches Started 154 (73.3%) 56 (26.7%)
Digs 1,460 (70.6%) 607 (29.4%)
Aces 128 (66.7%) 64 (33.3%)
Blocks 192 (58.0%) 139.0 (42.0%)
Players Mentioned
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/ VolleyballCreighton Volleyball - All-Access Spring Ball Trailer
Wednesday, May 27
Creighton Volleyball - All-Access Spring Ball Part 1
Tuesday, May 26
Creighton Volleyball vs Nebraska Postgame Press Conference Spring Match
Saturday, April 18
Nebraska Volleyball vs Creighton Postgame Press Conference Spring Match
Saturday, April 18
