CHICAGO, Ill. — The No. 24 Creighton Volleyball squad closed out a weekend trip to Chicago and Milwaukee with a sweep of the DePaul Blue Demons, 3-0. Scores of the Bluejay victory were 25-21, 25-16, 25-15.
Following victories over DePaul and Marquette (on Friday night), the Bluejays moved to 22-3 on the season and 10-2 in BIG EAST play. DePaul, meanwhile, fell to 13-11 overall and 6-6 in conference action.
“I thought we played another solid match tonight,” said Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. “DePaul’s a good team and I thought we served and passed pretty well and got them out of system which was key because their offense is so potent. I saw progress on some specific things we’ve been working on so I feel really good about the weekend. Now we have to go back to the gym, continue to get better and take it one match at a time.”
The opening set was a seesaw battle featuring 10 ties and two lead changes. The final tie of the set came at 19-19, drawing a timeout from Creighton. Returning to the court the Bluejays surged ahead on consecutive kills by Keeley Davis and Jaela Zimmerman, 21-19. Following a DePaul kill, Zimmerman and Davis went back-to-back once more to make it 23-20. The ensuing point saw freshman setter Kendra Wait deliver a kill. After the Blue Demons ended Creighton’s run at three, an attack error by Allison Dennemann gave the Bluejays the opening frame, 25-21. Zimmerman led CU with five kills and Naomi Hickman had three blocks in the first frame.
The Bluejays seized control of set number two in the opening 11 points, forcing DePaul into four attack errors, one bad set and a ball handling error to grab an 8-3 edge. Creighton, conversely, had just two hitting errors in the set, closing the frame hitting .276 (10 kills and two errors on 29 attempts). This hitting disparity, DePaul closed the frame hitting .021 (10 K, 9 E, 47 TA), allowed the Bluejays to claim a 25-16 win in the second. Abby Bottomley had nine digs and Wait added seven more, while Zimmerman had four kills.
DePaul got things going early in the third set, taking a 4-3 lead and knotting the set at 5-5. The Bluejays responded with eight of the next nine points, to soar out to a 13-6 advantage. This time freshmen Norah Sis and Wait guided Creighton’s glide to the top. Sis delivered two kills, two blocks and an assist during the run, while Wait had a solo block and the assist on both kills by Sis. Annika Welty had four kills and a bock in the final frame and the Blue Demons hit .000 in 27 swings.
Zimmerman led Creighton with 10 kills in the match, while Welty delivered eight kills and four blocks. Wait posted a double-double with 27 assists and 14 digs, while Bottomley closed with a match-high 18 digs. Creighton had 38 kills, two aces, 47 digs and 14 blocks on .273 hitting.
DePaul had 35 kills, 41 digs, no aces and three blocks on .079 hitting. Jill Pressley had 10 kills but hit .062 in 32 swings and Rachel Krasowski added 10 digs.
Creighton will host Xavier and Butler next weekend at D.J. Sokol Arena. The Bluejays face off with Xavier on Friday, Nov. 5 at 6:30 pm, then battle Butler on Sunday, Nov. 7 at 1:00 pm.
