OMAHA, Neb. — Ellie Bichelmeyer and Kiara Reinhardt had season-highs in kills to pace the No. 17 Creighton Volleyball team to a 3-0 win over visiting Villanova on Sunday.
Creighton (15-4, 6-2 BIG EAST) moved into a tie for third place with the 25-21, 25-18, 25-14 victory, while Villanova fell to 12-8 (3-5 BIG EAST) on the season. The Bluejays are now 7-0 at home this season and have won 40 straight home matches in the month of October.
Bichelmeyer notched 11 kills on .500 hitting while Reinhardt had nine kills and a career-best six digs on .571 hitting for the Bluejays. CU had another robust night offensively, hitting .340 with 46 kills. CU also served six aces, had 50 digs and eight blocks.
The first set featured 14 ties and five lead changes before Creighton finally pulled away down the stretch. With the score knotted at 20-all, a kill from setter Kendra Wait, an ace by Ellie Bolton and an Ava Martin gave the Bluejays a 23-20 cushion. The teams traded sideouts the next three points as CU took a 1-0 lead on Bichelmeyer’s fifth kill of the set.
Creighton hit .440 in the second set and held the Wildcats to -031 hitting to bolt to a 2-0 lead at intermission. CU trailed 10-9 before a 5-0 run on Wait’s serve. Creighton led 18-15 before a Nova service error started a 5-0 Bluejay run on Sky McCune’s serve. CU closed out the set with Kiana Schmitt’s third kill of the set. Schmitt also had a hand in two of CU’s three blocks during the frame.
Creighton raced to a 5-0 lead on McCune’s serve to open the third set and never trailed, though the Wildcats did claw back to tie the set at 9-9 and 10-10. CU led 14-13 before closing the match on an 11-1 run, capped by a 6-0 serving run from Wait that included two of her season-best three aces. Martin, Bichelmeyer and Destiny Ndam-Simpson all registered four kills in the last game as CU hit .308.
Villanova had 25 kills, 41 digs, three blocks and nine aces on .076 hitting. Aby Harrell had 11 kills and three aces, while Taryn Whittingham notched a match-leading 17 digs for the Wildcats.
Creighton will play its next four matches on the road, starting with Friday’s 5 p.m. Central match at Connecticut.
