Creighton University
Illinois State
Volleyball Wins Battle of the Birds in Four Sets at Illinois State
10/1/2010 9:10:00 PM | Volleyball
NORMAL, Ill. -- Allie Oelke had a season-high 18 kills to go with 16 digs, leading the Creighton Volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Illinois State on Friday night at Redbird Arena. Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 20-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-23.
Creighton, which is now 5-0 in true road matches this fall, improved to 9-6 overall and moved into sole possession of second place with a 4-1 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference. Illinois State, playing just its second home match of the campaign, fell to 11-6 (1-3 MVC).
"It was a big win, no question," said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "I thought we started really slow, but we then made some decent runs to get momentum late in the first game. I liked how we rebounded in the second game, and kept that up despite some lulls late in the third and fourth games to get the win. We definitely followed our game plan well. We've now avenged two of our conference road losses from last year (Evansville and now Illinois State) and our girls definitely are playing with some confidence on the road."
Illinois State never trailed in the first set, bolting to an 11-3 lead early on behind strong play from Mallory Leggett (six kills). Creighton would get as close as three points on three occasions (13-10, 14-11, 15-12), before ISU picked up its play to win the set. The Redbirds hit .288 in the first set and produced 26 digs, while Creighton was held to .130 hitting with 24 digs.
Creighton cleaned up its play, htting .391 in the second set and never trailing to take a 25-17 win and even the match. The Jays went up 5-1, 10-5 and 18-10 while cruising to victory. Creighton had 21 digs in the second set and got three kills each from Laurel Sanford, Allie Oelke, Heather Thorson, Alicia Runge and Karisa Almgren in the frame. Julianne Mandolfo had nine of her career-high 29 digs in the second set for CU.
Oelke carried the Bluejays to a third-set win. She had four kills and an ace before the Redbirds called timeout with Creighton ahead 11-7. Creighton would extend its lead to six at 18-12 before ISU scored the next four points and force a Bluejay timeout. ISU had a solid chance to make it a one-point set, but Leggett had an attack error to complete a long rally and return CU's lead to a more comfortable 19-16. The Redbirds win the next two points to get within one at 19-18. The Jays finished with a flourish, scoring six of the final seven points, including a kill by Oelke to clinch the set. Oelke had six kills and three digs in the set, while Mandolfo had 10 of Creighton's 29 digs.
Creighton never trailed in the fourth set to take the match victory. Creighton was leading just 9-8 before an 8-3 run gave the Jays a 17-11 lead. The hosts wouldn't roll over though, clawing back to tie the score at 20. The score would also be knotted at 23-23 before the Jays got consecutive kills from Oelke to close out the match.
Creighton returns to action tomorrow night at 6 pm (7 pm Eastern) with a contest at Indiana State.
NOTES: Creighton had swept each of its first four road matches this season, but has still never swept Illinois State in 36 all-time meetings ... Allie Oelke had 16 digs, moving her past Korie Lebeda to rank fifth in Bluejay history in career digs with 1,141 ... Allie Oelke moved into fifth in CU history with her 36th career double-double, and seventh of the season ... Alicia Runge had 10 kills, extending her streak to 16 straight contests with double-digit kills ... Creighton has won 10 of its last 11 matches vs. Illinois State ... Creighton had been 0-4 when losing the first set this season.
