Creighton University
6-4
Nebraska
6-2
Volleyball Falls in Four Sets at No. 9 Nebraska
9/17/2014 9:41:00 PM | Volleyball
LINCOLN, Neb. -- The Creighton Volleyball team went into Lincoln and won the first set before No. 9 Nebraska rallied for the final three sets to take a 3-1 victory over the visiting Bluejays before a sold-out crowd of 8,060 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Scores of the match in favor of the victorious hosts were 21-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-20.
Nebraska won its sixth straight match, improving to 6-2, while Creighton had a three-match win streak end and fell to 6-4. All four Bluejay losses are against teams in the AVCA Top 25 poll.
Creighton showed no fear in the first set, storming into the Bob Devaney Sports Center to take a 25-21 victory. CU only trailed once, at 2-1, and consistently made the plays down the stretch to keep NU at bay. With the score tied at 19-all, Lincoln native Lauren Smith pounded two kills and joined fellow Lincolnite Marysa Wilkinson for a block as part of a 4-1 stretch that gave CU a 23-20 cushion. NU got a block to close within two, but Creighton would win the set following a Husker serving error and an attack error.
Smith led CU with five kills in seven swings during the first frame, while Katie Neisler recorded five digs. NU hit .000 in 30 swings, committing nine errors to go with nine kills.
Creighton could not carry over the momentum in the second set. Nebraska used a 9-0 run with Justine Wong-Orantes at the service line to build an insurmountable 10-3 lead. Creighton did its best to fight back, drawing within one point at both 18-17 and 23-22, but ultimately the Huskers closed out the set on a kill by Kelsey Fien and a Mary Pollmiller ace. Kadie Rolfzen had five kills for NU in the second set, while CU got four kills by Leah McNary and four digs and nine assists by Maggie Baumert.
Nebraska built a 7-1 lead early in the third set, taking advantage of four attack errors by CU and getting two kills and a block from reserve Cecilia Hall. CU rallied to even the score at 11-all but would never lead in the set after NU responded with eight of the next 10 points. CU saved a pair of set points before NU prevailed, 25-20, on a kill by Amber Rolfzen. Browning had two blocks and seven kills in nine swings during the third set, but it wasn't enough to contain a balanced NU offense that got three kills from reserve Alicia Ostrander.
Nebraska led most of the fourth set to close out the Bluejays. With NU up 10-9, the Cornhuskers took advantage of a Bluejay attack error, then got kills from Meghan Haggerty and Ostrander to build a four-point cushion at 13-9. Creighton would draw within three points on two occasions (17-14, 18-15, but NU would outlast the Jays in the first regular-season meeting between the state rivals since 2011.
Kelli Browning led Creighton with 17 kills and seven blocks on .400 hitting, while Maggie Baumert dished 39 assists and added nine digs and six blocks. Katie Neisler led CU's defense with 13 digs, while Kate Elman added 10. Creighton had 14.5 blocks overall, but were done in by just two aces against 12 service errors.
NU was led by 16 kills and 10 digs by Kadie Rolfzen, while her twin sister Amber had seven kills and seven digs. Ostrander provided a huge spark off the bench for the Cornhuskers as well, finishing with seven kills and two blocks in the final two frames. NU finished with 14 blocks overall.
Both teams had 50 kills and 31 attack errors.
Creighton returns to action this weekend when it hosts the Creighton Classic. The action gets underway on Friday when Colorado faces South Dakota at 4:30 pm, followed by Creighton's match vs. No. 16 Illinois at 7 pm.
NOTES: Creighton had been 57-4 in the previous 61 matches its won the first set ,and dropped to 180-22 under Kirsten Bernthal Booth when winning the opener ...Today marked the second set that Creighton won vs. Nebraska in 13 meetings since its 1994 reinstatement, joining the first set in 2006 in Omaha ... Creighton has now won the first set four times in 14 meetings against top-10 foes under Kirsten Bernthal Booth ... Creighton dropped to 3-56 all-time vs. top-25 teams, including an 0-30 mark in true road matches and a 0-20 record vs. top-10 opposition ... The crowd of 8,060 was the fourth-largest to see a Creighton Volleyball match ... Leah McNary had 10 kills and moved into seventh place in Creighton history in kills, passing Amanda Cvejdlik.
