The NCAA volleyball tournament selected three teams from the MVC, but once again, the Jays were not among them. A pair of five-set semifinal matches at the Missouri Valley Conference tournament effectively ended the Jays’ volleyball season.

The Bluejays (18-9) were defeated 25-20, 26-24, 18-25, 25-27, 15-8 by Northern Iowa on Friday, marking the fourth straight year the Jays were eliminated by the Panthers. Later the same night, Missouri State handed top-seeded Wichita State its first loss of the season. The Bears advanced to Saturday’s final, where they swept UNI to lock up the MVC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The league’s two at-large bids went to nationally-ranked No. 9 Wichita State and UNI. The Jays were not selected despite having an RPI of 44 and finishing second in the MVC. The Jays finished the season with a best-ever 15 home wins and 12 wins in their last 14 matches.

Coming off sweeps of UNI and Bradley, the second-seeded Jays had a bye into the MVC semifinals, where they met No. 3 UNI.

The Panthers never trailed in the first set, going up 9-1 with eight straight points served by Shannon Aschoff.

The Jays fought back to 24-23 in the second set before UNI rallied for the final three points and the win.

Creighton dominated the third set with eight blocks and three aces.

UNI led 20-11 in the fourth set before the Jays rallied to bring it within two. Creighton staved off four match points to finish the game 27-25 and force a fifth set.

After being tied at 4, the Panthers took control of the fifth set to close out the match.

Three Jays posted double-doubles, and sophomore Allie Oelke’s 16 kills were her season-best. CU finished with 63 digs, seven aces, 91 digs and 16 blocks.

The loss was the last match for seniors Bianca Rivera, Amanda Cvejdlik, Carolyn Decker and Korie Lebeda.