Saturday, September 17
Houston, Texas
2:00 PM
Creighton University
8-2,0-0Big East
3
vs
1
Kansas State
9-4,0-0Big 12
1
2
3
4
F
#17 Creighton
25
25
13
25
3
Kansas State
16
22
25
19
1
#17 Volleyball Claws Past Kansas State in Four Sets
9/17/2022 4:01:00 PM | Volleyball
Bluejasy improve to 8-2
HOUSTON, Texas -- The No. 17 Creighton Volleyball team picked up a 3-1 victory over regional rival Kansas State on Saturday afternoon at the Adidas Rice Invitational II in Houston.
Scores of the match were 25-16, 25-22, 13-25, 25-19.
Keeley Davis led Creighton (8-2) with 17 kills while Norah Sis added 13 of her own, in addition to 12 digs. The Wildcats were paced by 16 kills from Shaylee Myers.
"Keeley's got a lot of family here so she had a huge cheering section and so that was a blast for her," said Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "The thing that Keeley's doing well is doing different things with the ball. She mixes up off-speed, she can hit down if the hole is there and then she had a couple big swings in the fourth game that were just really high-hands balls, way out of system, huge block and she went high and flung it off their fingers. What Keeley's doing so well is diversifying her attack so much . She's not doing the same thing over-and-over and that makes her hard to defend."
Creighton never trailed in a 25-16 win in the first set. Kiana Schmitt and Davis both had five kills in the opening set, and the Bluejays had 23 digs to hold KSU to .143 hitting. CU raced to leads of 7-2 and 13-5 to force a pair of K-State timeouts. The Wildcats rallied to within 13-11 after a 6-0 run but CU pulled away with a 5-0 run and sealed the set when Haley Warner's attack sailed long.
The Bluejays trailed 18-13 in the second set but would rally to tie the score at 20-all. Down 22-21, Kansas native Ellie Bolton served a 4-0 run to close the set as CU got two kills from Davis and another from Ava Martin to build a 2-0 lead in the match. Davis once again had five kills and Allison Whitten had eight of CU's 25 digs in the frame. K-State was led by six kills from Elena Baka in the second set, but it wasn't enough.
Kansas State (9-4) dominated the third set, using back-to-back aces by Myers to move ahead 16-6 as part of a 10-1 scoring blitz. CU would fall behind as large as 21-8, and a late rally wasn't enough in a 25-13 setback. KSU hit .444 in the third set and held Creighton to .061 hitting in 33 swings. Myers paced the Wildcats with six kills in 10 swings during the third set
Creighton never trailed in the final set, completing its first win over the Wildcats since 2015. The Jays hit .297 in the fourth set. Davis had seven kills on nine swings in the finale, including the putaway on match point.
Creighton finished with 55 kills, six aces, 77 digs and five blocks on .226 hitting. In addition to the offensive firepower displayed by Davis and Sis, Kendra Wait had a big day with 41 assists and 19 digs, Whitten topped CU with 21 digs and Bolton collected a pair of aces.
K-State wrapped up the afternoon with 48 kills, four aces, 72 digs and 10 blocks and hit .192 as a group. Mackenzie Morris led all players with 22 digs. The Wildcats also got double-doubles from Baka (13 kills, 16 digs) and setter Loren Hinkle (37 assists, 10 digs).
Creighton closes non-conference play on Sunday at 1 p.m. when it takes on tournament host Rice. The Owls improved to 9-1 last night after winning the final three sets in a 3-2 win over Kansas State.
NOTES: Creighton's Kendra Wait, who's dad and brother both competed in track & field at Kansas State, had her team-high seventh double-double of the fall ... Both Wait and Sis had a double-double for Creighton for the fourth straight match ... Creighton is 11-0 on neutral floors the past two seasons ... Creighton has started at least one freshman in 70 straight matches after Ava Martin got the initial nod today ... Norah Sis surpassed 600 career kills in her 45th career match, third-quickest in CU history behind Jaali Winters (41) and Melissa Walsh (42).
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Scores of the match were 25-16, 25-22, 13-25, 25-19.
Keeley Davis led Creighton (8-2) with 17 kills while Norah Sis added 13 of her own, in addition to 12 digs. The Wildcats were paced by 16 kills from Shaylee Myers.
"Keeley's got a lot of family here so she had a huge cheering section and so that was a blast for her," said Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "The thing that Keeley's doing well is doing different things with the ball. She mixes up off-speed, she can hit down if the hole is there and then she had a couple big swings in the fourth game that were just really high-hands balls, way out of system, huge block and she went high and flung it off their fingers. What Keeley's doing so well is diversifying her attack so much . She's not doing the same thing over-and-over and that makes her hard to defend."
Creighton never trailed in a 25-16 win in the first set. Kiana Schmitt and Davis both had five kills in the opening set, and the Bluejays had 23 digs to hold KSU to .143 hitting. CU raced to leads of 7-2 and 13-5 to force a pair of K-State timeouts. The Wildcats rallied to within 13-11 after a 6-0 run but CU pulled away with a 5-0 run and sealed the set when Haley Warner's attack sailed long.
The Bluejays trailed 18-13 in the second set but would rally to tie the score at 20-all. Down 22-21, Kansas native Ellie Bolton served a 4-0 run to close the set as CU got two kills from Davis and another from Ava Martin to build a 2-0 lead in the match. Davis once again had five kills and Allison Whitten had eight of CU's 25 digs in the frame. K-State was led by six kills from Elena Baka in the second set, but it wasn't enough.
Kansas State (9-4) dominated the third set, using back-to-back aces by Myers to move ahead 16-6 as part of a 10-1 scoring blitz. CU would fall behind as large as 21-8, and a late rally wasn't enough in a 25-13 setback. KSU hit .444 in the third set and held Creighton to .061 hitting in 33 swings. Myers paced the Wildcats with six kills in 10 swings during the third set
Creighton never trailed in the final set, completing its first win over the Wildcats since 2015. The Jays hit .297 in the fourth set. Davis had seven kills on nine swings in the finale, including the putaway on match point.
Creighton finished with 55 kills, six aces, 77 digs and five blocks on .226 hitting. In addition to the offensive firepower displayed by Davis and Sis, Kendra Wait had a big day with 41 assists and 19 digs, Whitten topped CU with 21 digs and Bolton collected a pair of aces.
K-State wrapped up the afternoon with 48 kills, four aces, 72 digs and 10 blocks and hit .192 as a group. Mackenzie Morris led all players with 22 digs. The Wildcats also got double-doubles from Baka (13 kills, 16 digs) and setter Loren Hinkle (37 assists, 10 digs).
Creighton closes non-conference play on Sunday at 1 p.m. when it takes on tournament host Rice. The Owls improved to 9-1 last night after winning the final three sets in a 3-2 win over Kansas State.
NOTES: Creighton's Kendra Wait, who's dad and brother both competed in track & field at Kansas State, had her team-high seventh double-double of the fall ... Both Wait and Sis had a double-double for Creighton for the fourth straight match ... Creighton is 11-0 on neutral floors the past two seasons ... Creighton has started at least one freshman in 70 straight matches after Ava Martin got the initial nod today ... Norah Sis surpassed 600 career kills in her 45th career match, third-quickest in CU history behind Jaali Winters (41) and Melissa Walsh (42).
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Team Stats
CU
KSU
Kills
55
48
Errors
20
18
Attempts
155
156
Hitting %
.226
.192
Points
66.0
62.0
Assists
52
46
Aces
6
4
Blocks
5.0
10.0
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
17
Aces
1
Blocks
0
Kills
9
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
6
Aces
1
Blocks
2
Players Mentioned
DS
/ VolleyballOH
/ Volleyball
OH
/ VolleyballMB/RS
/ VolleyballS
/ Volleyball
DS
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