Friday, September 6
Cedar Falls, Iowa
7:30 PM
Creighton University
2-2
3
at
2
Northern Iowa
2-2
1
2
3
4
5
F
Creighton
19
25
25
18
15
3
Northern Iowa
25
22
22
25
11
2
Brittany Witt
Photo by: Steve Branscombe
Volleyball Takes Down UNI in Five Sets
9/6/2019 10:35:00 PM | Volleyball
6 of CU's 11 all-time wins over UNI have come in 5 sets
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- The No. 23 Creighton Volleyball team picked up its second win in 12 hours with a 3-1 road win at defending Missouri Valley Conference champion Northern Iowa on Friday, Sept. 6.
Scores in Creighton's favor were 19-25, 25-22, 25-22, 18-25, 15-11. It's Creighton's 11th all-time win over UNI, and sixth in five sets. Creighton is now 7-2 in its last nine meetings with UNI after starting 4-40 versus the Panthers.
Creighton (2-2) and UNI (2-2) split the first two sets.
The Panthers hit .268 in the opening frame and used six blocks to limit the Bluejays to .075 hitting, with UNI's Kate Busswitz terminating on all five attack attempts.. Creighton then fell behind 5-0 to open the second set before a 7-2 surge knotted the score at 7-all. CU used a 7-1 run on Brittany Witt's serve to move ahead 19-14 and held off a ferocious Panther challenge down the stretch. Megan Ballenger provided a kill on set point, which stood after a replay review of nearly four minutes in CU's 25-22 victory. Brittany Witt had eight digs in the second set for the Jays.
Creighton took a 2-1 lead in the contest with a 25-22 victory in the third set. Trailing 17-13 late in the frame, the Jays used a 6-1 lead to move ahead 19-18 and would not trail again. A kill from Jaela Zimmerman capped off the set victory. The sophomore from Lincoln had four digs, three kills, one ace and a block in the third set alone.
UNI controlled the fourth set in a 25-18 win, hitting .289 to CU's .100 as Karlie Taylor delivered eight kills for the hosts. CU managed just eight kills as a team in the game, with five coming from Erica Kostelac.
After UNI won the first point of the fifth set, Zimmerman served CU on a 6-0 run. The Jays saw their 7-2 lead narrowed to 7-5 after a Panther run, but CU still led by three as the teams switched benches midway through the set at 8-5. Northern Iowa gave the Jays a scare when it closed to within 10-8 and 12-10, but a kill by Kostelac and the first career ace by true freshman Ally Van Eekeren gave CU four match point chances. UNI survived the first two chances before Taylor's attack error on match point.
Kostelac (15), Keeley Davis (10), Ballenger (10) and Naomi Hickman (10) all notched double-figure kills for CU, while Brittany Witt had her 20th career match with 20 or more digs, finishing with a season-high 28. Madelyn Cole had her second double-double of the day and third of the young season as the senior finished with 48 assists and 15 digs. The Jays had 57 kills, six aces, 88 digs and 7.5 blocks on .154 hitting.
UNI was led by 29 kills from Taylor, who needed 78 swings to do it and hit .218. She added 14 digs an an ace. Busswitz added 19 kills on .457 hitting. The Panthers had 63 kills, three aces, 87 digs and 11 blocks on .188 hitting.
Creighton wraps up play in the UNI Tournament on Saturday at 5 p.m. with a match against No. 15 USC.
NOTES: Creighton won two matches on the same day for the first time in six tries during this annual tournament between Kentucky, UNI, USC and the Jays ... Creighton's last six wins over UNI have come in six different states (Kentucky, California, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa). CU hadn't beaten UNI in Cedar Falls since another 3-2 win in 2012 when the two were MVC rivals ... Creighton improved to 56-29 in five-set matches under Kirsten Bernthal Booth after going 15-28 prior to her arrival ... Creighton is 15-3 in its last 18 true road matches to go five sets ... Creighton has won 48 straight matches when winning the dig battle .. Creighton won for just the 15th time in 17 seasons under Kirsten Bernthal Booth when losing the hitting percentage battle, improving to 15-151 ... Combined with Creighton men's soccer's 2-1 win over No. 21 Akron and the volleyball team's win over No. 12 Kentucky earlier in the day, Creighton beat ranked teams in both sports in the same day for just the third time ever.
Team Stats
CU
UNI
Kills
57
63
Errors
28
28
Attempts
188
186
Hitting %
.154
.188
Points
70.5
77.0
Assists
55
60
Aces
6
3
Blocks
7.5
11.0
Game Leaders
Kills
15
Aces
1
Blocks
1
Kills
10
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
10
Aces
0
Blocks
4
Kills
10
Aces
1
Blocks
3
Players Mentioned
MB/RS
/ Volleyball
S
/ VolleyballOH
/ VolleyballMB/RS
/ VolleyballOH
/ Volleyball
S
/ Volleyball
DS
/ Volleyball
OH
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