#25 Volleyball Opens BIG EAST Play on East Coast

• No. 25 Creighton Volleyball (5-7, 0-0 BIG EAST) makes its first trip to the East Coast this season as it looks to continue its dominance in the BIG EAST.

The 12-time defending BIG EAST champion Bluejays start league play on Friday at 4 p.m. Central with a match at Seton Hall (8-5, 0-1 BIG EAST). That contest will be played at Walsh Gymnasium in South Orange, N.J., and be streamed on ESPN+.

On Saturday at 6 p.m. Central, CU takes on St. John's (11-3, 1-0 BIG EAST) at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y. on YouTube.

• Brian Rosen is in his second season as Creighton head coach, where his 33-13 record with the Bluejays moves his career mark to 78-30 after four seasons.

Rosen was named the fourth head coach in modern Creighton Volleyball history on April 6, 2025, as he was promoted following the departure of 22-year head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. He became the BIG EAST's first rookie head coach since 2014 to win 20+ matches in his first year in the league, the only rookie head coach in league history to win multiple NCAA Tournament matches, and the first new coach to win 28+ matches in his first season.

Named the 2024 AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year, Rosen served as a Creighton assistant from 2022-24, during which time CU went 88-13, swept the BIG EAST regular-season and tournament tiles each fall, and defeated 10 Top 25 opponents.

Rosen led Creighton to the BIG EAST regular-season and Tournament titles in 2025 and a return to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. He is 18-0 all-time vs. BIG EAST foes, winning 54-of-58 sets.

The 2008 South Carolina grad went 45-17 as head coach at Division II Nova Southeastern from 2019-21, though the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19 without playing a match.

Rosen is assisted by Angie Oxley Behrens, Adam Kessenich and Izzy Ashburn.

• Creighton is 23-3 all-time against Seton Hall, including a 10-2 mark in South Orange.

Creighton has 22 straight victories in the series and has won 62 consecutive sets against the Pirates since dropping the second set on Sept. 25, 2015.

Brian Rosen is 2-0 against the Pirates.

• Creighton is also 23-3 all-time against St. John's, and 11-1 in Queens.

Creighton has swept the Red Storm in five straight meetings and have won the last 18 sets played against the Johnnies.

Brian Rosen is 2-0 against St. John's.

• Despite the graduation of All-Americans Ava Martin, Annalea Maeder and Kiara Reinhardt, Creighton was the unanimous pick to win the BIG EAST in a preseason poll of league coaches.

Abbey Hayes, Jaya Johnson and Ayden Ames were all named Preseason All-BIG EAST.

This is the sixth time since 2015 and third year in a row that the Jays have been voted a unanimous favorite to win the BIG EAST.

Creighton has previously been a unanimous favorite in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2024 and 2025 and gone a combined 85-3 in league action in those previous five seasons while sweeping the regular-season and conference titles on each occasion.

• Since the start of the 2012 season, Creighton, and Western Kentucky are the nation's only schools to have won 13 or more conference regular-season titles. All but three of Creighton's 12 crowns were outright titles, whereas WKU has shared six championships.

Creighton has also won 12 conference tournament titles since 2012, the most in the nation.

Most Conference Titles 2012-2025

Regular-Season League Tournament

13 (3 shared) Creighton 12 Creighton

13 (6) Western Kentucky 11 Western Kentucky

12 (1) Fairfield 10 Fairfield

11 (1) Texas

• Creighton (2014-25) is the first team in BIG EAST volleyball history to win 12 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 more than five straight league titles, more than doubling the previous high of five in a row by the men's soccer program (1992-96) in the MVC.

The only other volleyball team nationally with an active streak of more than six straight regular-season league titles is Kentucky, which won its ninth consecutive SEC crown last year.

Creighton's 12 straight regular-season titles rank third-longest in NCAA history, trailing only Florida's 18 straight SEC titles from 1991-2008 and Hawaii's 16 consecutive WAC crowns from 1996-2011.

• 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.

Creighton owns 12 regular-season titles (3 shared) in that time, while Marquette owns four regular-season (3 shared) crowns.

As it relates to BIG EAST Tournament titles, Creighton has won 11, Marquette one and St. John's one since 2013.

• Since the BIG EAST was restructured in 2013, Creighton owns a winning percentage better than .800 against each of the other teams currently in the BIG EAST.

The Bluejays own 227 wins against BIG EAST competition (including BIG EAST Championship play) since 2013, 40 more wins than Marquette for most in the league.

CU still has not lost to three league foes (DePaul, Georgetown, Providence) since joining the BIG EAST, and Marquette (6), 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 23-1 - 23-1

Connecticut 5-1 1-0 6-1

DePaul 26-0 3-0 29-0

Georgetown 24-0 - 24-0

Marquette 21-5 8-1 29-6

Providence 18-0 - 18-0

Seton Hall 21-3 2-0 23-3

St. John's 22-2 1-1 23-3

Villanova 21-3 3-0 24-3

Xavier 23-1 5-0 28-1

TOTAL 204-16 23-2 227-18

• Last year was Creighton Volleyball's fourth team to go unbeaten in BIG EAST play.

The Jays lost just four sets all season in league play, and have dropped only seven sets in BIG EAST action in 38 matches (34 regular-season matches, 4 BIG EAST Tournament matches) versus league foes since the start of 2024.

Year Sets Lost 5 Setters Pts For-Against % of Pts.

2016 5 1 1,457-1,088 57.2

2018 6 2 1,474-1,092 57.4

2024 3 0 1,418-884 61.6

2025 4 1 1,281-883 59.2

• Creighton was one of eight teams in the country that did not lose a regular-season conference match last fall. Of those teams, Creighton's four league sets lost trailed only Nebraska.

Brian Rosen was the only one of the eight head coaches who had an undefeated conference slate to not win Coach of the Year honors in his/her league, and Rosen was 3-2 against the other schools on this list.

Set W-L Team League

60-1 Nebraska Big Ten

48-4 Creighton BIG EAST

48-8 Northern Iowa Missouri Valley

45-9 Kentucky Southeastern

54-10* Dayton Atlantic 10

41-13 San Diego West Coast

48-12* South Dakota State Summit

54-13 Utah State Mountain West

*lost in league tournament

• Creighton has won its last 47 BIG EAST regular-season matches to establish a program and league record.

It breaks the record for the longest streak in BIG EAST history, surpassing the 45 in a row done from Oct. 1, 1999 to Nov. 15, 2002 by Notre Dame.

Creighton's Most Consecutive Regular-Season League Wins

Wins Dates Snapped By League

47 Oct. 7, 2023 - Present ? ? ? BIG EAST

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

• Add in conference tournament play and Creighton has won 53 straight matches against BIG EAST teams since October 7, 2023, dropping just eight sets to league opponents in that time.

The only team with a longer active win streak against league competition is Northern Iowa (59).

• Creighton is 24-8 all-time in conference openers, and 1-0 under Brian Rosen. That includes an 12-1 mark in BIG EAST lid-lifters, with 12 straight wins.

Each of the last 13 times that Creighton won its league opener (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025), the Bluejays went on to win the regular-season title, going a combined 211-13 in regular-season league action. Creighton also won 12 conference tournament titles during those years, going 24-1 at the league tournament in those seasons.

In the 23 seasons that Creighton has won its conference opener, it has never finished worse than .500 in league play and it owns a combined .798 (340-86) winning percentage 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 27-5 overall with 15 straight wins.

In league road openers, Creighton is 23-9 overall with 12 straight wins.

The last team to win a BIG EAST regular-season or tournament title without winning its regular-season opener in conference play was Cincinnati in the fall of 2008, which will continue beyond 2025.

• Creighton finished non-conference play with a 5-7 record, its first losing record in non-conference play since 2015. That 2015 team also started 5-7, then won 22 of its next 23 matches to reach the program's first Sweet 16.

• Creighton is ranked 25th in this week's AVCA poll, a nod of respect to the program's status and schedule strength despite the program's current five-match losing streak.

It's the 160th week in program history that CU has been ranked, the 36th-most of any program nationwide. Even more incredible is that CU had never been ranked prior to 2012.

This is the 83rd straight week that Creighton has been ranked, the 10th-longest active streak in the country, and it dates back to Sept. 6, 2021.

Creighton is one of seven schools to currently have a top 25 team in both men's soccer and women's volleyball. That list consists of Creighton, Indiana, SMU, Stanford, Wisconsin, Louisville and Pittsburgh.

• Creighton's defense continues to thrive, holding foes to .193 hitting this fall.

That includes holding Northern Iowa to its lowest hitting percentage (.000) since at least 2006, and No. 1 Nebraska to a season-low .202 after the Huskers entered the match hitting .330 for the year.

CU also held Louisville to .256 hitting, snapping the Cardinals six-match streak of .300 hitting or better.

Creighton has held 108 straight opponents under the .300 mark.

Creighton has led the country in opponents hitting percentage in two of the previous five seasons, doing so in both 2021 (.124) and 2024 (.130).

• Trinity Shadd-Ceres owns 158 kills through her first 12 matches at Creighton, an average of 13.17 per contest.

No player has ever reached 200 kills at Creighton in fewer than 15 matches.

Earlier this month Shadd-Ceres tied JoDe Cieloha's program-record mark by reaching 100 kills in just her eighth match.

Creighton's Quickest Players To 100 Kills (Career)

Name MP Date Opponent

JoDe Cieloha 8 09/23/94 at Drake

Trinity Shadd-Ceres 8 09/12/26 vs. #5 Louisville

Jaali Winters 9 09/12/15 Pacific

Norah Sis 9 09/11/21 Illinois

Melissa Walsh 10 09/26/98 at Bradley

Carolyn Decker 10 09/18/04 Illinois State

Keeley Davis 10 09/21/19 Wyoming

Creighton's Quickest Players To 200 Kills (Career)

Name MP Date Opponent

Jaali Winters 15 09/27/15 Villanova

Melissa Walsh 16 10/16/98 at Indiana State

JoDe Cieloha 18 10/30/94 at UMKC

Allie Oelke 18 10/06/07 at So. Illinois

Keeley Davis 18 10/20/19 Xavier

Norah Sis 18 10/08/21 DePaul

• One reason for Creighton's non-conference record is the quality of opponents that it has played thus far.

Eleven of the 12 teams on the docket thus far (all but Pepperdine) made the NCAA Tournament last year, and all 12 finished with a Top-45 RPI.

Through Tuesday night, Creighton owned the No. 4 strength of schedule thus far.By comparison, Seton Hall had gone 8-4 against the No. 331 schedule and St. John's 10-3 versus the No. 280 schedule.

• Creighton Volleyball has made 14 straight NCAA Tournaments, the longest streak by any women's program in school history.

Creighton is one of seven teams nationally to have made every NCAA Tournament from 2012-25. That group consists of BYU, Creighton, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, Penn State and Texas.

• Creighton is one of nine schools to appear in the Sweet 16 in each of the last three NCAA Tournaments (2023-25), joining Kentucky, Louisville, Nebraska, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Stanford, Texas and Wisconsin.

Creighton is one of five schools to be in the Elite Eight in both 2024 and 2025, a list that features Creighton, Nebraska, Pittsburgh, Stanford and Wisconsin. Creighton has won a First Round match in the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons (2023-25). Nationally, only 20 schools have done that: Arizona State, Baylor, Creighton, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Marquette, Miami (Fla.), Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, SMU, Stanford, TCU, Texas, USC and Wisconsin.

• Creighton is looking to replicate its offensive efficiency from last year's trip to Seton Hall.

On that night, Creighton hit a program-record .551 and finished with 41 kills in 69 swings with just three errors.

CU did not have an attack error until the fifth point of the third set, at which point it already had 31 kills.

Creighton also served up 14 aces in the contest, one shy of an all-time program-best.

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Players Mentioned

Ayden Ames

Abbey Hayes

Jaya Johnson

Annalea Maeder

Ava Martin

Kiara Reinhardt

Trinity Shadd-Ceres

Creighton University Athletics