#15 Volleyball Opens Rice Invitational With Win Over UNI

Friday, September 11

Houston, Texas

3:00 PM

Creighton University

5-2,0-0Big East

Northern Iowa

3-4,0-0MVC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
UNI	16	17	25	19	1
Creighton	25	25	15	25	3

Eloise Brandewie

Photo by: Caleb Christensen

#15 Volleyball Opens Rice Invitational With Win Over UNI

9/11/2026 4:47:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score STATS (PDF)PHOTOS

By: Rob Anderson

HOUSTON, Texas -- No. 15 Creighton Volleyball opened play at the Rice Invitational with a 3-1 win over Northern Iowa on Friday afternoon in Houston, Texas. It was Creighton's 10th straight win over its Missouri Valley Conference rival.

Scores of the match in CU's favor were 25-16, 25-17, 15-25, 25-19.

Abbey Hayes had 11 kills and four blocks for Creighton, while Eloise Brandewie contributed nine kills and nine blocks. Saige Damrow finished with a career-high 30 digs and Trinity Shadd-Ceres owned 13 digs to accompany her eight kills. CU owned 36 kills, four aces, 66 digs and 15 blocks on .096 hitting.

Cassidy Hartman led the Panthers with 20 kills, but UNI hit .000 with 38 kills to match 38 errors in 159 swings. All-MVC performer Lily Dykstra had eight kills but also owned 13 errors in 35 swings. Reese Booth, daughter of former Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth, owned 31 assists and 10 digs. The Panthers recorded 38 kills, 69 digs, 11 blocks and four aces.

"I thought the first two sets we were really, really clean," said head coach Brian Rosen. "Our service pressure was so good early. Nora got us started and our block kept going from what we did vs. Tulsa. Offensively we needed to put more balls away but our defense was good enough that we got away with it in the first two sets. I thought Saige played great with 30 digs. Defense definitely won the match today."

Creighton (5-2) scored the first four points of the match and faced its only deficit before intermission when it fell behind 1-0 to open the second set. UNI (3-4) took its first lead of the third set at 9-8, part of a 10-1 Panther run to take control of the third set.

CU broke free from a 4-4 first set tie to move in front 16-8 after an ace by Sydney Breissinger. Ayden Ames and Hayes both had three blocks in the first set as the Jays forced the Panthers into 12 attack errors.

Creighton raced to a 19-11 lead in the second frame as Rayna Christianson served up a 5-0 run. Shadd-Ceres had three kills in CU's final four points to close out the set. The Panthers were held to just five kills in the second set on 35 attacks as Damrow had her second straight set with five digs as Creighton took its first 2-0 lead into intermission of the young season.

The Panthers extended the match in the third set, hitting .231 with 15 ills as Hartman put down eight kills in 21 swings and Dykstra dug seven balls.

Creighton quickly flipped the momentum at the outset of the fourth with an early 12-4 lead that saw UNI blow through both timeouts. The four-time defending MVC champs fought back to within one at 17-16, but CU scored seven of the next nine points to get to match point and eventually close out the 25-19 decision. Damrow had 14 digs in the fourth set alone, once again contributing to a Bluejay defense that held UNI to -.042 hitting in the final frame.

Creighton is back in action on Saturday at 1 p.m. with a match vs. No. 5 Louisville. That contest will be streamed on ESPN+.

NOTES: Saige Damrow became Creighton's first player with 30 digs in a match since Kendra Wait had 36 vs. Florida State on Sept. 9, 2022 ... Creighton improved to 13-1 all-time against UNI when ranked ... Creighton has now beaten UNI in 10 straight meetings. The only other program to defeat UNI 10 times in a row was Minnesota (12 straight from 1976-89) ... Creighton is 23-3 all-time when ranked 15th nationally ... Creighton improved to 28-1 under Brian Rosen against unranked foes ... Creighton is now 27-5 on neutral floors since the start of 2021 ... Abbey Hayes had four digs and now owns 200 in her career ... Creighton and UNI have now met in 11 different tournaments, which have come in seven different states.