Boiler Spoilers! #13 Volleyball Opens Season With Win Over #9 Purdue

Friday, August 28

Sioux Falls, S.D.

6:00 PM

Creighton University

1-0,0-0Big East

Purdue

0-1,0-0Big Ten

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Purdue	25	22	23	25	11	2
Creighton	19	25	25	11	15	3

#6 Jaya Johnson huddles up with her teammates.

Photo by: Intersport

Boiler Spoilers! #13 Volleyball Opens Season With Win Over #9 Purdue

8/28/2026 9:19:00 PM | Volleyball

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By: Rob Anderson

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Abbey Hayes and Katie Dalton had double-doubles and Saige Damrow dug a career-high 26 balls as No. 13 Creighton Volleyball opened its 2026 season with a 3-2 win over No. 9 Purdue on Friday evening at the 2026 State Farm Volleyball Showcase held at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Scores of the Bluejay win were 19-25, 25-22, 25-23, 11-25, 15-11, as Creighton improved to 15-3 in season-opening matches since 2009.

Wisconsin transfer Trinity Shadd-Ceres had 13 kills in her Bluejay debut, including three kills in the final set. Preseason All-BIG EAST picks Abbey Hayes (11 kills, 12 digs) and Jaya Johnson (10 kills) also finished in double-figures.

Purdue was paced by Addy Tindall, who had 22 kills and hit .463 and 19 kills by Lameen Mambu. National Player of the Year candidate Taylor Anderson, who led the nation last year with 1,420 assists, dished 44 helpers in the five-set contest. The Boilermakers played without Second Team All-American Kenna Wollard (personal reasons), then lost Omaha native and Third Team All-American Grace Heany midway through the second set due to injury.

Creighton stormed to an 8-2 lead in the final frame, then held tough after Purdue drew within 13-11. Brian Rosen used his first challenge of the season at a crucial time, leading to a Purdue net call, to get the Jays to match point. The Jays closed out Purdue for the third time in four years on a Boilermaker attack error.

The first four sets featured 17 ties and eight lead changes between the squads who each reached last year's Elite Eight.

The Boilermakers trailed most of the first set before using an 8-1 burst to move in front 21-17 following two straight Purdue blocks. Tindall (7) and Mambu (6) combined for 13 of Purdue's 17 kills in the set and the Boilermakers owned a 22-13 advantage in digs.

CU evened the match in the second set with a well-timed 5-1 run featuring a pair of Shadd-Ceres aces to build a 21-17 advantage. With CU clinging to a 23-22 lead, kills by Hayes and Johnson tied the match heading to intermission. CU owned a 17-11 advantage in kills in the second set as five Bluejays had three or more terminations. Dalton distributed 16 digs for CU.

Creighton overcame a 12-6 deficit in the third set to tie the score at 17-all on a tandem block by Eloise Brandewie and Ashlyn Paymal. Paymal, who played sparingly as a freshman, tied the score at 21-all with a kill. The Jays capped their 4-0 run to move in front 24-21 following a Dalton ace, a Hayes/Ames block and a Hayes kill to end the set. Damrow had nine of her career-high 26 digs in the third set.

Purdue dominated the fourth set, cruising to a 25-11 decision to force a decisive set. An 8-0 run helped Purdue to a 13-3 lead. CU hit -.195 with 13 attack errors in the set while Purdue had twice as many kills (10-5) as the Jays. The Boilermakers had six blocks in the fourth set.

Purdue opened the final set with another block before CU responded with a 6-0 run on Nora Wurtz's serve. The lead reached 8-2 before Purdue narrowed the gap to 10-7 before the Jays ultimately pulled away by scoring the final two points of the night. Both teams had six kills and three blocks in the final set, but CU had two fewer attack errors and Wurtz dealt the only ace of the set to provide the difference.

Creighton hit .104 and had 52 kills, 66 digs, 12 blocks and seven aces. Purdue finished with 62 kills, 83 digs, 16 blocks and one ace and hit .219 as a team.

Creighton is back on the court on Saturday at 4 p.m. when it meets No. 14 Minnesota in a match that will be televised on FS1. The Gophers were swept by No. 12 Arizona State in the second match of the tournament.

NOTES: Both Creighton and Purdue reached last season's Elite Eight and are two of the nine schools to appear in each of the last there Sweet 16's ... Creighton started three new transfers in the season-opener for the first time as Ayden Ames, Katie Dalton and Trinity Shadd-Ceres all got a starting nod in their Bluejay debuts ... Creighton has now had a block in 974 straight matches ... Katie Dalton (934) surpassed 900 career assists and Ayden Ames (306) went past 300 career kills ... Katie Dalton became CU's first player since Madelyn Cole in 2018 with a double-double in her Bluejay debut ... Creighton has now beaten a ranked Purdue team three of the last four seasons, topping the Boilermakers when they were ranked No. 16 in 2023 and No. 6 in 2024 before tonight's win over the No. 9 Boilermakers ... Creighton is now 22-11 in season-opening matches since restarting its program in 1994, with a 3-4 mark against Top 25 foes ... Creighton moved to 13-44 all-time against Top 10 foes, with all but one of those victories coming away from home ... Creighton has now defeated at least one ranked team in 12 straight seasons ... Creighton is now 25-4 in its last 29 neutral site matches ... Creighton's first win each season under Brian Rosen has been a neutral-site Top 25 triumph in five sets, as the Jays upended No. 14 Kansas last year in Madison in five frames ... Creighton improved to 3-1 all-time against ninth-ranked teams ... Ayden Ames seven blocks were the most ever by a player in their Creighton debut, passing Kelli Browning's six in 2011 ... Creighton is now 5-1 in five-set matches under Brian Rosen ... Creighton has won 14 straight matches when taking a 2-1 lead.