#13 Volleyball Meets #14 Minnesota on Saturday in Sioux Falls

#13 Creighton Bluejays (1-0) vs. #14 Minnesota Golden Gophers (0-1)
Aug. 30, 2026 • 4 p.m.
State Farm Volleyball Showcase
Sioux Falls, S.D. • Sanford Pentagon
FS1 • http://Creighton.StatBroadcast.com\
| LIVE VIDEO | LIVE STATS | CU NOTES | MINN NOTES |

• Fresh off a 3-2 win over No. 9 Purdue in Friday's season-opener, No. 13 Creighton Volleyball (1-0) looks to take down its second ranked Big Ten team in 22 hours when it meets No. 14 Minnesota (0-1) on Saturday at 4 p.m., at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.

• Creighton enters Saturday with a 25-4 record in its last 29 neutral site matches.

• Creighton has now defeated at least one ranked team in 12 straight seasons.
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 Friday's win over the No. 9 Boilermakers.

• Creighton moved to 13-44 all-time against Top 10 foes, with all but one of those victories coming away from home.

• Friday's win over No. 9 Purdue was the third time ever that Creighton has opened the season with a Top 25 victory, as the Bluejays beat No. 13 BYU in 2013 and topped No. 5 Kentucky in 2018.
Creighton has never opened the season with back-to-back ranked wins, something it can do with a triumph over No. 14 Minnesota on Saturday.

• Creighton has defeated ranked teams on back-to-back days on two previous occasions, and looks to make it a third on Saturday. The last time it happened, CU started that stretch with a neutral-site victory over a Top 10 Purdue team.
2019: Beat No. 12 Kentucky on Sept. 6 and No. 15 USC on Sept. 7 in Cedar Falls, Iowa
2024: Beat No. 6 Purdue on Sept. 20 and No. 9 Kansas on Sept. 21 in Lawrence, Kan.

• Creighton is 2-2 all-time against teams ranked No. 14,most recently defeating No. 14 Kansas on Aug. 31, 2025 in Madison, Wis.

• Creighton improved to 3-1 all-time against ninth-ranked teams. Before last night, CU's last win over a team ranked ninth was Sept. 16, 2021 at Minnesota.

• Creighton was 1-5 last year when losing the opening set, and Purdue was 19-1 when winning the first set.
Last night, Creighton won despite dropping the first set to Purdue.

• Creighton won Friday's match despite losing the statistical battle in virtually every category except aces, where CU held a 7-1 advantage. Creighton's last season-opener with seven aces or more was 2015, when CU had seven service winners in a 3-2 win vs. Miami (Ohio).
Creighton opened last fall with five aces against No. 2 Penn State before going on to author a program-record 251 aces.

• Creighton's .104 hitting percentage in last night's win over No. 9 Purdue was its lowest hitting percentage in any victory since Sept. 27, 2002, when CU hit .087 in a 3-2 win over an Evansville team that was 2-12 at the time. That Creighton team finished 3-23 and hired Kirsten Bernthal Booth in February of 2003.
None of the current Creighton players were alive on Sept. 27, 2002.
Creighton's last win when committing 33 attack errors or more had been Sept. 28, 2018 in a 3-2 win at Butler.

• Including Friday vs. Purdue, Creighton has won 14 straight matches when taking a 2-1 lead.

• Of Creighton's 13 all-time Top 10 victories, yesterday was just the fourth time ever the Jays knocked off a Top 10 foe after losing the first set. The only other times it happened was Nov. 22, 2019 against No. 9 Marquette in Omaha, Aug. 24, 2018 vs. No. 5 Kentucky in Los Angeles and Dec. 2, 2016 at No 4 Kansas.

• 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 last year in Madison in five frames.

• Creighton is now 5-1 in five-set matches under Brian Rosen, with the lone loss coming last year to No. 1 Nebraska.

• 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 yesterday. The trio combined for 40 assists, 20 kills, 19 digs, eight blocks and three aces on Friday.

• Creighton has had a block in all 974 matches since restarting its program in 1994, and can reach 975 on Saturday. On Friday, Jaya Johnson and Ayden Ames had a block on the first point of the match to continue the streak.

• Ayden Ames seven blocks were the most ever by a player in their Creighton debut, passing Kelli Browning's six in 2011.

• Yesterday Katie Dalton (934) surpassed 900 career assists and Ayden Ames (306) went past 300 career kills.
Looking ahead to Saturday, Jaya Johnson owns 484 career kills, Sydney Breissinger boasts 884 career digs and Katie Dalton owns 488 career digs.
Creighton can also improve to 2-0 for the sixth time in the last seven seasons with a win on Saturday. The only exception came last year, when CU was swept by No. 2 Penn State and No. 5 Texas to start the fall.

• Katie Dalton (37 assists, 10 digs) became CU's first player since Madelyn Cole in 2018 with a double-double in her Bluejay debut. She's just the eighth Bluejay -- and fifth setter -- in CU history to do so.

• Trinity Shadd-Ceres had 13 kills yesterday. That's already a season-high for the junior, who had 10 kills as a freshman and 12 kills as a sophomore at Wisconsin.
Shadd-Ceres' 13 kills are tied for third-most in program history for a debut with the Jays, trailing only 17 by Jaali Winters in 2015 and 14 by Jess Bird in 2013 vs. No. 13 BYU.

• Friday night was quite the night at The Pentagon for Wisconsin transfers. On the Creighton side of the net, Saige Damrow had a career-high 26 digs and Trinity Shadd-Ceres had career-highs with 13 kills, eight digs and two aces.
In the nightcap, Arizona State's Una Vajagic had a career-high 20 kills on .500 hitting against Minnesota.

• Purdue served 107 times on Friday, but had just one ace, which was recorded as a team reception error.
Bluejay outside hitters Trinity Shadd-Ceres (42 receptions) and Abbey Hayes (27) combined for 69 receptions without an error.

• Abbey Hayes had the third double-double of her career as the Preseason All-BIG EAST pick had 11 kills and 12 digs on Friday vs. No. 9 Purdue. Hayes had double-doubles last year vs. Marquette (13k, 13d) and Northern Iowa (12k, 10d) last fall.

• Creighton improved to 13-0 all-time when Jaya Johnson has 10 or more kills with Friday's win vs. Purdue.

• A native of the Twin Cities (Lakeville, Minn., to be exact), Rayna Christianson made quite a difference in her college debut. Christianson checked in with CU trailing 11-6 in the third set, which saw the Jays recover to win 25-23. Christianson also appeared in each of the next two sets as CU flirted with a 6-2 offense.
Christianson finished the match with nine assists, a dig and an ace.

• Subbing in along with Rayna Christianson when Creighton went to its 6-2 offense, Ashlyn Paymal had breakthrough match on Friday as well. After amassing nine kills, two blocks and one dig all last season (in 10 matches/13 sets), Paymal had a career-high three kills, a career-high two blocks and tied her best with one dig on Friday.
Paymal's first kill tied the third set at 21-all while her final putaway gave the Jays an 8-2 lead in the fifth set.

#13 Volleyball Meets #14 Minnesota on Saturday in Sioux Falls

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Players Mentioned

Ayden Ames

Sydney Breissinger

Rayna Christianson

Katie Dalton

Saige Damrow

Abbey Hayes

Jaya Johnson

Ashlyn Paymal

Trinity Shadd-Ceres

Creighton University Athletics