#17 Volleyball Meets St. John's in BIG EAST Tourney Final

2023 BIG EAST Championship - Presented by JEEP
Match #31: St. John's Red Storm (23-9) vs. #17 Creighton Bluejays (26-4)
Milwaukee, Wis. • Saturday, Nov. 25 • 1 p.m.
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• Top-seeded and 17th-ranked Creighton (26-4) seeks its fourth consecutive BIG EAST Tournament title on Saturday at 1 p.m. when it faces third-seeded St. John's (23-9). The winner of Saturday's match earns itself an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which will start on Thursday or Friday at 16 campus sites nationwide.
   The contest will be televised on FS2 and streamed at http://FoxSports.com/live, with Bob Brainerd and Anna Connelly on the call.
   Live stats can be found at https://gomarquette.com/sidearmstats/wvball/media.

• Creighton owns eight BIG EAST Tournament titles in program history (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022) and plays for its ninth crown on Saturday. The only teams with more than Creighton's eight are Pittsburgh (11) and Notre Dame (9).
   It would also make Creighton the first program to win nine BIG EAST Tournaments in any 10-year span.
   With a win on Saturday, Kirsten Bernthal Booth can tie Notre Dame's Debbie Brown for most BIG EAST Tournament titles in history.

• Creighton is 18-3 all-time against St. John's, but lost in the 2019 semifinals in Milwaukee in the only previous BIG EAST Tournament match-up. Creighton has won the last five meetings, dropping just one set total in that time.
   Creighton swept St. John's in Omaha on Sept. 29 (25-14, 25-23, 25-18), holding the Johnnies to negative hitting in two of the three sets. In the rematch in Queens on Nov. 11, Creighton won 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-10) thanks to 18 kills by Ava Martin.
   Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 18-3 against Joanne Persico and 18-3 vs. St. John's.

• Creighton is appearing in its 10th BIG EAST Tournament title game in 11 years as a member of the BIG EAST, going 8-1 in the first nine such contests with eight straight wins. CU won five consecutive titles from 2014-18.
   Creighton also won the 2012 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in its final season in the MVC.

• With a win on Saturday, Creighton will become the first program to win four straight league tournament titles on multiple occasions. The only other programs to win four straight league tournament titles are Pittsburgh (1988-94), Notre Dame (1995-98) and Creighton (2014-18).

• Creighton is 15-1 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament play as the No. 1 seed, and 17-1 in all conference tournaments as a No. 1 seed.

• Creighton Volleyball is seeking the school's 11th 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.
   Creighton's BIG EAST Tournament Titles (10)
   Baseball (1): 2019
   Men's Soccer (1): 2022
   Volleyball (8): 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022

• With eight 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), whom Booth can tie on Saturday.
   Since 2014, the only BIG EAST coaches to win the tournament have been Booth (8) and St. John's Joanne Persico (1), who will square off on Saturday afternoon.

• The last time the Coaching Staff of the Year won the BIG EAST Tournament was 2016 (Creighton). In fact before Creighton and St. John's yesterday, the Coaching Staff of the Year hasn't even won a set in the semifinal round since 2018 (St. John's). The hex will end on Saturday, as Creighton and St. John's shared BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year honors earlier this week.

• Creighton has won 39 tournaments since 2012, including one in each of the past 12 seasons. This year's team played in four regular-season tournaments (events hosted by Purdue, Creighton, Omaha and Minnesota), and won all four. CU's only other squad to win five events in the same season was its 2021 club.
   Since the start of the 2021 calendar year, Creighton has won 13 of the 18 tournaments it has played in, a figure that improves to 13-of-15 if you throw out NCAA Tournaments.

• Creighton can join select company if it can sweep St. John's. Since the league's reinstatement, the only teams to post back-to-back 3-0 wins in the semifinals and finals of the same tournament are Creighton in both 2016 and 2021.

• Creighton is 23-0 this season when winning the second set. St. John's is 17-0 when winning the second set, 20-0 when winning the third set and 10-0 when winning the fourth set and 6-0 in the fifth set this year.
   Creighton has also won 35 sets in a row when taking a 1-0 lead (i.e,. scoring the first point of a set), and is 54-6 in sets when taking a 1-0 lead.

• Teams to win the first set in the BIG EAST Tournament final have won just two of the previous six finals, an incredible trend considering that the first set winner won the match every year from 2007-16 and are 32-9 all-time in the finals. All four teams in the previous six years to lose the first set but came back to victory were Creighton (2017, 2018, 2020, 2022).
   Only two teams in league tournament history have lost the first two sets and come back to win, Louisville in 2006 (over Notre Dame) and Pittsburgh in 1993 (over Seton Hall).

• Creighton is 15-1 in the past three seasons on neutral floors, including a 4-1 mark this fall.

• Creighton is seeking its 10th conference tournament title since 2012 on Saturday. In that span, the only schools that are close are Dayton (9) and Western Kentucky (9), while Fairfield is a distant fourth with seven.

• Creighton's 14 straight wins are tied for its fifth-longest streak in program history, and the nation's 10th-longest active streak entering Saturday.

• Creighton is 18-2 all-time in its 10 BIG EAST Championship appearances, including eight titles (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022).
   Creighton is now 10-1 in the semifinal round and 8-1 in the finals.
   Including 2023, 11 of Creighton's last 12 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 Al McGuire Center at the BIG EAST Championships, including titles in 2014, 2017 and 2021. The lone loss came in the semifinal round in 2019 to St. John's.
   At 18-2, Creighton is the only team in this weekend's BIG EAST Championship with a winning record in the event all-time. St. John's is 9-9, Marquette is 13-15, Xavier is 2-6, DePaul is 1-2 and Villanova is 22-34.
   Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 18-2 in BIG EAST Championship action with eight titles. By comparison, the league's 10 other active coaches have a combined mark of 17-33 in the BIG EAST Championship with two titles. None of the other 10 coaches have a winning record in the event.

• Yesterday was Creighton's 24th straight victory over DePaul. It's the program's longest streak over one opponent in program history. Creighton has now eliminated the Blue Demons in both of their BIG EAST Tournament appearances (2021 & 2023).

• Saturday marked Creighton's 900th match since restoring the volleyball program in 1994, and the Bluejays have had a block in every single one of them. Ironically, yesterday DePaul did not record a block.

• Since Nov. 1, 2014, CU is 60-4 in the month of November, including a 7-0 record this year.

• A win on Saturday would improve Creighton to 27-4, tied for its fifth-most wins in program history.

• Friday's victory improved Creighton to 18-1 in matches with Norah Sis in the line-up this year. Since her return on October 13th, the Bluejays are 13-0 and have lost just one set. The lone set loss came against St. John's on Nov. 11th.
   With Sis, Creighton has won 56-of-63 sets (including all six vs. top 25 competition), hitting .321 as a team.

• Norah Sis moved into 10th on Creighton's all-time kills list on Friday, as her 12 kills gave her 1,168 to mover her past former BIG EAST Tournament MVP Lauren Smith (1,160) and just behind Marysa Wilkinson (1,183) for ninth place.

• Norah Sis was named Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Championships in both 2021 and 2022. That made her the first player to be named Most Outstanding Player of the BIG EAST Championship multiple times since Creighton's Jaali Winters (2016, 2018). She's also the first player to have won the award in back-to-back seasons since Notre Dame's Jaimie Lee in 1996 and 1997.
   The only player in league history to be named Most Outstanding Player more than twice was former Pitt star Ann Marie Lucanie, who won it four consecutive seasons from 199-93.
   Among other Bluejays, Kendra Wait has been named to the All-Tournament Team each of the previous two seasons, while Ava Martin was recognized last year.

• Last year's final saw Norah Sis (23) and Ava Martin (22) combine for 45 of Creighton's 74 kills in a 3-2 win over #14 Marquette. Kiana Schmitt had 10 blocks and Kendra Wait added 60 assists and 20 digs. All four women were named to this year's All-BIG EAST Team when honors were announced on Tuesday.

• Not a single player on the Creighton sideline has ever played in a BIG EAST Tournament loss. Kiana Schmitt was on CU's 2019 team that fell to St. John's, but did not play in that contest.
   With a win on Saturday, Schmitt, Ellie Bolton and Kiara Reinhardt will earn their fourth BIG EAST Tournament title in as many seasons, though Reinhardt redshirted in 2021 and did not play.
   Schmitt and Bolton have a chance to appear in a fourth title game victory, something only done previously by a Bluejay player by Marysa Wilkinson, Jaali Winters, Taryn Kloth, Naomi Hickman and Jaela Zimmerman.

• With an unofficial RPI of 11 as of Friday night, it's all but a certainty that Creighton hear its name called on Selection Sunday when the Field of 64 is announced.
   It will be Creighton's 13th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, and 12th consecutive. The only nine schools to appear in each of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments (prior to this year) are BYU, Creighton, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, Penn State, San Diego, Texas and Washington
   If Creighton is selected to host, it would mark the fifth time since 2017 that has happened.

• With a win on Saturday, Kirsten Bernthal Booth will clinch her 13th NCAA Tournament bid as a Bluejay head coach, most in Creighton Athletics history in any sport.
    With a win on Saturday, Booth will have won the BIG EAST's regular-season and Tournament title in the same fall nine times in a 10 year span, but been named BIG EAST Coach of the Year just three (2015, 2016, 2023) of those nine seasons where she's led her team to both crowns.

• Regardless of Saturday's result, Creighton will host a Selection Show viewing party that is open to fans and media at the D.J.'s Dugout downtown location (1003 Capitol Ave.) in Omaha. The selections will be announced beginning at 5 p.m. Central on Sunday on ESPN.

#17 Volleyball Meets St. John's in BIG EAST Tourney Final

Players Mentioned

Ellie Bolton

Ava Martin

Kiara Reinhardt

Kiana Schmitt

Norah Sis

Kendra Wait

Jaela Zimmerman

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