Creighton University
Bradley
Volleyball Stays Perfect In MVC With Road Win at Bradley
9/22/2007 9:00:00 PM | Volleyball
PEORIA, Ill. -- Freshman Allie Oelke had a career-high 23 kills as the Creighton volleyball team completed a perfect weekend with a 3-0 win over Bradley on Saturday night at Robertson Memorial Field House. Scores of the match were 30-21, 30-22, 30-25.
The Bluejays are now 9-5 on the season and a perfect 3-0 in Missouri Valley Conference play, while Bradley dropped to 1-13 (0-4 MVC). CU has won five of its last six matches.
The Jays showed little sign of a letdown after Friday night's five-game win at preseason favorite Northern Iowa. The Bluejays never trailed in game one and pulled away late. CU would score eight of the final nine points to take the first game, 30-21. Kelly Goc had seven kills in the opening set.
"We really challenged them before the match," said Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "Great teams play every single match, and I thought we did that."
Oelke proved near impossible to stop in game two, earning 10 kills in 13 swings. The Jays hit .450 in the second game, with 22 kills in 40 swings.
The Jays trailed 15-13 in game three before coming back with a big 14-6 run to regain control. The Jays would win on a BU ball handling miscue. Oelke added eight more kills in the third game, while Bianca Rivera steadied the defense with eight digs in the last set.
"They were committing a lot to our middles, and that opened up some opportunities for some of our other players," said Booth.
In addition to Oelke's match-high 23 kills, Goc had 12 kills and hit .308. Rivera led the defense with 21 digs. CU finished with 62 kills, three aces, 65 digs and six blocks while hitting .250.
Bradley was led by eight kills each from Nikki Pierzchala and Melissa Collins. The Braves finished with 33 kills, one ace, 48 digs and 10 blocks while hitting .176 for the evening.
Creighton returns to action on Friday with a 7 pm match against Illinois State. The match will be Creighton's first at the Omaha Civic Auditorium since Aug. 25.
NOTES: Creighton's Bianca Rivera has now had 10 or more digs in all 14 of her career matches at CU. That is tied for fourth-longest streak in CU history ...Creighton improved to 26-0 all-time when Abby Baumann hits .208 or better with 10 or more attacks.
