#6 Volleyball Faces #2 Penn State For Final Four Berth

2024 NCAA Tournament - Regional Final
Match #35: #6 Creighton (32-2) at #2 Penn State (32-2)
University Park, Pa. • Sunday, Dec. 15 • 7:30 p.m. CST
| LIVE VIDEO | LIVE STATS | CU NOTES | PSU NOTES |

• A trip to the Final Four is on the line on Sunday night when sixth-ranked Creighton (32-2) visits second-ranked Penn State (32-2) at 7:30 p.m. Central inside Rec Hall in University Park, Pa.
    The Final Four starts on Thursday in Louisville, Ky., inside KFC Yum! Center.

• ESPN will televise the match, with Paul Sunderland, Missy Whittemore and Shelby Coppedge on the call. The match will also be streamed on http://watchespn.com.

• Creighton is seeking its first Final Four trip in Volleyball, as it lost its only previous Regional Final match in 2016 at Texas (3-0).
    Creighton has previously been among the final four teams playing in baseball once (1991) and men's soccer six times (1996, 2000, 2002, 2011, 2012, 2022).

• Creighton is the nation's only school to reach the Elite Eight in women's volleyball (2024), women's basketball (2021), men's basketball (2022) and men's soccer (2022) since the start of the 2021-22 academic year.

• This is the 38th straight academic year at least one Creighton team has made the NCAA Tournament.

• With a win on Sunday, Creighton will be the first school without football to reach the Volleyball Final Four since Santa Clara in 2005.
    No team without football has reached the NCAA Volleyball Final since Long Beach State in 2001. The last team without football to win the volleyball title was Long Beach State in 1998.
    Creighton is the only team remaining in the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Tournament that does not sponsor a football program.

• Friday's victory improved Creighton to 17-13 all-time in 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a 2-2 mark in the Regional Semifinal round. All of those matches have taken place under the direction of Kirsten Bernthal Booth.
    When Booth was hired in 2003, Creighton was coming off a 3-23 fall and never won more than 16 matches in any season since its 1994 reinstatement.

• Creighton outblocked Texas 11-2 and also had an 8-3 advantage in service aces on Friday.
    The 11 blocks by Creighton were tied for the fourth-most against Texas this season, and the eight aces tied for the second-most allowed by the Longhorns this fall.
    The two blocks by UT were a season-low.

• Creighton is the only Volleyball program in BIG EAST history to ever reach the Elite Eight, and has now done it twice (2016 and 2024).

• Creighton Volleyball has now won 25 straight matches, the longest active win streak in the country, and two longer than the previous school record that was snapped in the 2016 team's Regional Final loss.

• Sunday's Regional Final pits Kirsten Bernthal Booth against Katie Schumacher-Cawley.
    Besides those two, the only other remaining female head coach (after the Regional Semifinals) is Louisville's Dani Busboom-Kelly.
    No female coach has ever led her team to the NCAA Women's Volleyball title.

• Friday's victory was Creighton's 32nd triumph of the season, breaking a school-record set in 2021.
    The 32 victories are tied for the national lead with Pittsburgh, Penn State and Nebraska.
    It's the most wins by any BIG EAST program since St. John's finished 33-4 in 2007. The league record was set by a 35-10 Syracuse squad in 1990.

• Creighton has won 100 sets this fall, a figure that leads the nation through the end of the Regional Semifinal Round (Pittsburgh entered Saturday with 98).
    Additionally, Creighton's 12 sets lost are tied for the fewest in the country entering the Regional Finals (Pitt entered Saturday with 12 as well).

• Creighton owns 119 wins since the start of 2021, which trails only Pittsburgh's 122 victories (entering Saturday) nationally in that span.

• Creighton enters Sunday with a nine-match win streak in true road matches, tied for the longest road win streak in team history.
    Penn State enters Sunday with a 23-match home win streak, the nation's fourth-longest active streak. Entering Saturday, only Nebraska (44), Pittsburgh (34) and Creighton (33) owned longer active home win streaks.

• Creighton is the nation's only school to win 25 matches or more in every season since 2014 (not counting the 2020 COVID-19 year when it only played 16 times).

• Creighton's four Top 25 wins this year tie a program record (also 2018 and 2019) for one season, with a chance to set the outright mark on Sunday against No. 2 Penn State.

• Creighton is now 30-88 all-time against Top 25 opposition after Friday's win, including a 4-2 mark this fall.
    CU is 10-42 all-time in true road matches against Top 25 foes.

• Creighton is now 25-27 all-time against Top 25 competition when ranked itself, a figure that grows to 4-3 all-time when both teams are in the Top 10.

• Creighton owns 10 Top 10 wins in program history, all of which have taken place in the last 10 seasons. Nine of the those Top 10 wins have taken place away from home, including wins over No. 6 Purdue and No. 10 Kansas on back-to-back days in September in Lawrence, Kan.
    Creighton owns four Top-five wins in program history, and all of those were away from home.
    The highest-ranked team that Creighton has ever beaten was No. 3 Washington (8/26/17) and No. 3 Kentucky (9/4/21), but the Jays are 0-1 all-time against No. 2 teams and 0-6 all-time against No. 1 clubs entering Sunday's tussle with the second-ranked Nittany Lions.

• Assistant coach Brian Rosen is fond of reminding the Bluejays that they're the nation's best third-set team in the country, and the numbers would seem to verify that.
    Creighton has outscored its last four Top 25 opponents 100-64 in the third set.
    Creighton is 33-1 in the third set this season and has hit.358 in the third set. Against Top 25 competition, CU is hitting .343 in the third set.
    Creighton is also a perfect 8-0 in the fourth set this season.

• Creighton is 12-2 this season against teams that made the NCAA Tournament, including eight straight victories.
    Kendra Wait is averaging 11.27 assists, 3.08 digs, 1.08 kills and 0.82 blocks per set on .397 hitting in those matches, and Creighton has hit .293 as a team.

• Texas was the 101st different school that Kirsten Bernthal Booth has beaten in her 22 years on the Creighton sideline. A win over Penn State would up that figure to 102 squads.

• Friday's win helped Creighton improve to 49-0 in matches that last either three or four sets since October 7, 2023. Each of CU's last three losses came in five sets.

• Creighton won Friday's match vs. Texas despite dropping the first set, improving to 4-2 this year when losing the opener.
    Creighton is now 428-36 (.922) under Kirsten Bernthal Booth when winning the first set and 74-155 (.323) when losing the first set.
    In NCAA Tournament play, Creighton is 12-4 when winning the first set and 5-9 when losing the first set.
    Creighton has won 45 matches in a row when winning the first set.

• Creighton and Penn State are two of the nation's seven teams to have appeared in each of the last 13 NCAA Tournamnets. That list also includes BYU, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska and Texas.

• Creighton and Penn State share six common opponents this year.
    Penn State beat Louisville 3-0, while Louisville defeated Creighton 3-2.
    Creighton swept St. John's twice, while Penn State swept the Red Storm once.
    Creighton beat Purdue in four sets, while Penn State swept the Boilermakers twice.
    Creighton and Penn State both beat USC in four sets.
    Creighton lost 3-2 at Nebraska, while Penn State beat the Cornhuskers in four sets on Nov. 29.
    Creighton beat Marquette three times (3-1, 3-1, 3-0), while Penn State beat Marquette once (3-1).

• Creighton hit .307 against Texas on Friday and has now won 189 straight matches when hitting .300 or better.

• It's been a busy stretch for Creighton, both on and off the court, in the past week. About half of the team finished final exams before departing Omaha on Wednesday, many more took a final on Thursday, and Sky McCune and Jaya Johnson took an Astronomy final on Friday morning before the 1 p.m. ET match.
    On Saturday Elise Goetzinger has a final, while Emersen Strain will take a final after the team returns to Omaha on Monday.
    Creighton had 17 women earn a GPA of 3.50 or better at least one semester in 2023-24 and has picked up a Team Academic Award from the AVCA in 17 of the last 21 seasons.

• Creighton libero Maddy Bilinovic leads the Bluejays with 425 digs (3.75 dps.), but is no stranger to Rec Hall. She played for Penn State the previous four seasons before graduating and transferring to Creighton in January.

• Elise Goetzinger had seven kills and three blocks on .333 hitting on Friday, beating Texas in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in her career.
    Goetzinger is hitting .381 this season, which puts her on track to set Creighton records for a single-season and career in the category.
    In her last five matches, Goetzinger is hitting .493 with 42 kills.

• Jaya Johnson had nine kills in 12 swings on Friday. The redshirt freshman also had four blocks, with three of those coming against Madisen Skinner, including one on match point.
    Johnson hit a season-high .667 as Creighton improved to 22-0 when she hits .300 or better.
    In Creighton's last three matches against Top 25 foes, Johnson has 28 kills and six errors in 44 swings to hit an even .500 in 11 sets.
    Johnson started her Friday by taking an Astronomy final exam.

• Ava Martin served an ace on Friday, giving her 54 this season. That's five behind Molly Moran's school-record of 59 set in 2000. Martin's 10 career NCAA Tournament aces are a program record.
    Martin also owns five or more kills in each of her last 76 matches.
    Martin's 17 straight matches with 10 or more kills is the fifth-longest streak in CU history, one shy of Jaela Zimmerman's 18 that are currently fourth.

• Kiara Reinhardt tied a season-high with nine kills on Friday vs. No. 13 Texas, while her eight blocks gave her a BIG EAST-leading 162 this fall.
    Creighton is 52-3 in the past two seasons when Reinhardt starts.
    Creighton also improved to 18-0 this fall when Reinhardt hits .300 or better.

• Kendra Wait had 47 assists on Friday and now owns 4,934 in her career. That puts her 66 shy of 5,000 in her career, something only Korie Lebeda (5,281) has done in Bluejay history.

• Friday's 47 assists and 17 digs marked the 20th double-double of the season for Kendra Wait, and extended her program-record with her 73rd in her illustrious career.
    Wait owns a double-double in each of her last nine matches agianst Top 25 opponents, and 17-of-19 overall Top 25 contests in her career.
    Wait now owns a double-double in 34 of the 40 career matches to go four sets or longer.

• Creighton's never had anyone named a First or Second Team All-American, but don't be surprised if Kendra Wait (and several teammates) break through this year.
    After a regular-season that saw Wait repeat at BIG EAST Player of the Year and BIG EAST Setter of the Year, all Wait has done is earn BIG EAST Tournament MVP honors, then go crazy in the NCAA Tournament.
    In three NCAA Tourney contests, Wait has averaged 11.70 assists, 3.20 digs, 2.20 kills and 0.60 blocks per set while hitting .724.

#6 Volleyball Faces #2 Penn State For Final Four Berth

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Players Mentioned

Maddy Bilinovic

Elise Goetzinger

Jaya Johnson

Ava Martin

Sky McCune

Kiara Reinhardt

Emersen Strain

Kendra Wait