Creighton Volleyball swept by Marquette

Creighton Volleyball swept by Marquette
October 6th, 2023 | gocreighton.com

MILWAUKEE, Wis. —   The No. 15 Creighton Volleyball team was swept on Friday night by BIG EAST Conference preseason favorite Marquette on Friday night at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee.

Scores of the MU victory were 25-21, 25-23, 25-19.

Marquette (10-7, 6-0 BIG EAST) ended the first set with a 5-0 run to take a 25-21 victory and 1-0 lead in the match. Creighton got three kills each from Destiny Ndam-Simpson and Ava Martin but the Bluejays hit just .073 and had trouble slowing down Aubrey Hamilton’s six kills in 13 swings. Marquette libero Sarah Kushner had a pair of aces while serving up the run to end the first set.

Creighton (12-4, 3-2 BIG EAST) trailed for much of the second set, including 18-13, before rallying to knot the score at 20-all. But just like the first set, the host Golden Eagles made the key plays down the stretch to earn the set victory. CU saved a pair of set points before a service error gave the Golden Eagles a 2-0 lead at the intermission.  Creighton had four blocks in the second set but hit just .132.

“Obviously Marquette’s a great team…I just thought we didn’t handle end game well,” said Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth.

The Bluejays never led in the final frame, falling behind 6-1 and never clawing closer than 9-7 the rest of the evening. MU hit .276 in the final frame and sided out on 75 percent of Creighton’s serves. CU’s 11th serving error of the night ended the match.

Ndam-Simpson led CU with 11 kills while Ellie Bolton paced the Jays with 16 digs. Kendra Wait added a double-double with 25 assists and 11 digs. The Bluejays hit .117 and finished with 33 kills, five aces, 45 digs and 7.0 blocks.

Hamilton led all players with 13 kills to pace MU, while Hattie Bray added 10 kills and a match-leading five blocks. The Golden Eagles ended with 38 kills, six aces, 52 digs and nine blocks on .226 hitting.

Creighton returns to the court on Saturday night with a 6 p.m. match at DePaul (10-6, 3-2 BIG EAST) that will air on FloSports.

“DePaul is up and down, and when they play well they’re really a good team,” noted Booth. “(Jill) Pressly is one of the best outsides in the league. She carries a ton of load. We’ve got to bounce. I told them they have 15 minutes to mourn this and then we’ve got to move on. We told them all week that Saturday’s the biggest match of the weekend, so we’ve got to rebound and try to learn from this.”

NOTES: Marquette beat Creighton for just the fourth time in 25 meetings in the last 10 seasons, but all four of those wins have been 3-0 sweeps … Either Creighton or Marquette has won each of the last 10 BIG EAST regular-season titles and nine of the last 10 BIG EAST Tournament titles … Creighton was swept for the first time all season …. Creighton is 21-0 in its last 21 matches after a loss. Every team in the nation has lost back-to-back matches since CU last did to open the 2019 campaign … Creighton fell to 7-3 in matches without 2022 BIG EAST Player of the Year Norah Sis, who has not played since Sept. 3rd … Wisconsin native Kiara Reinhardt served her first two aces of the season …  Marquette won for the first time in eight tries against a top-25 team this fall.

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