Creighton’s winter sports are closing in quickly, with official games for men’s basketball in 16 days and women’s basketball in 18 days. That does not slow down the conference races in the other sports throughout the fall athletics calendar. With both soccer teams headed down to the home stretch, volleyball having just ten matches left in the regular season, and other events going on across campus, many are looking at Creighton athletics not just for basketball. On this week’s edition of Kresin’s Playbook, we look at Maddy Bilinovic’s milestone against Butler, the shot margin for the men’s soccer team against DePaul, men’s and women’s basketball rankings and the results for the Creighton cross country teams.
1,000 – Maddy Bilinovic, on Oct. 4 at Butler, notched her 1,000th career dig while Creighton defeated Butler 3-0. Bilinovic is a transfer from Penn State, where she accumulated 790 career digs over a four-year period. Now at Creighton, she has notched 255 digs in a Creighton uniform through Oct. 21 and will have the remainder of this season to accrue more digs and build upon an impressive accomplishment across both Penn State and Creighton. The volleyball team’s next outing will be at Georgetown and Seton Hall in back-to-back days on Oct. 25 and 26.
+19–Creighton men’s soccer team outshot the DePaul Blue Demons 23-4 in a game where the Bluejays lost to DePaul, 2-0. This margin of +19 for shots is the highest margin Creighton has had against an opponent, regardless of result, since Aug. 25, 2022, when the Bluejays outshot the Oakland Golden Grizzlies 28-2 in a 6-0 victory. According to my research, this +19 margin for shots is the highest mark in Johnny Torres’ tenure at Creighton in a match the Bluejays lost. The team also managed to not concede a corner kick, an occurrence not seen for the Bluejays since Oct. 12, 2022, at Xavier.
15 and 21 – The Creighton men’s and women’s basketball teams are ranked 15th and 21st in the preseason AP Poll, marking the third consecutive year that coaches Greg McDermott and Jim Flanery have both enjoyed a top 25 team going into the season. The men’s basketball team returned three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Kalkbrenner, while the women’s side returned two double-digit scorers in Lauren Jensen and Morgan Maly. Both teams host exhibitions in the month of October, with the men hosting Purdue on Oct. 26 and the women hosting Southwest Minnesota State on Oct. 30.
11– The Creighton cross country teams, both men’s and women’s, finished in first place at the Platte River Rumble. Evan Kraus finished his 8000m event in 25:33.07, placing first overall in the event for the men. Taylor Rorick paced the Creighton women with a time of 22:40.76 in her 6000m event, placing third overall and second among athletes in the team event. The next event for the cross country teams will be on Nov. 1 in the Big East Championships at Leesburg, Virginia.
Numbers were found through Creighton’s athletics website, the Statheadtool and the Play Index tools on Sports-Reference.