Maintaining a win streak can be a challenging feat for a team. Yet, the No. 13 Creighton Bluejays Volleyball team extended its win streak to nine matches with a three-set victory over the St. John’s Red Storm. During the nine-game streak, the Bluejays have dropped just one set and sit atop the Big East standings.
“Any win is a good win, and so I’m happy to come out here and get that one, especially in three sets,” Head Coach Brian Rosen said. “It’s been a common theme for us, we have two sets that aren’t that close and one set that is an absolute battle, and that was the second set.”
In the first set, the Bluejays came out aggressively and went on a 5-0 scoring run to take an early 7-2 lead over the Red Storm. Two of these points came back-to-back kills from seniors Annalea Maeder and Ava Martin.
The next few points were back and forth with the Bluejays leading 9-6. However, Creighton followed this up by winning six out of the next seven points to take a 15-7 lead. Attacking at the net continued to be an instrumental part of this set, with the Bluejays having four kills during this run.
The Bluejays extended their lead to 21-11 late in the set and then had a pair of aces from redshirt-freshman Nora Wurtz. This helped the Jays finish off a first-set victory as they won 25-12.
“They were passing in a lot of rotations in that first set,” junior Sydney Breissinger said. “We are a team that prides ourselves on our serving and hitting our spots well. We were able to mess with them from that standpoint and keep them out of system. We saw how things turned in the second set when they were able to get in the system more often…They are a great offensive team, but I think that was the big difference in the first set.”
In the second set, the Bluejays came out firing and won the first six points of the set. This included two aces and a pair of kills to take the 6-0 lead. The Red Storm began slowly chipping away at this lead and brought the deficit to a single point. After a pair of kills, the Red Storm were trailing 13-12. The set continued to stay very tight as the two teams found themselves tied at 18. However, three straight kills from the Bluejays gave them a 21-18 lead.
Creighton held the slim lead, holding a narrow 24-22 lead. However, St. John’s survived back-to-back set points for the Jays, and the score was tied at 24. This forced the second set to go into extra points. However, a kill from senior Kiara Reinhardt followed by an error from the Red Storm led to a 26-24 victory for the Bluejays.
“I think winning teams find ways to win, and we’ve been in those situations quite a bit over the last few weeks,” Rosen said. “I think early on this season, we were still trying to figure out who we are and how to become a winning team, and we didn’t come out on top in those types of sets. Throughout the season, we’ve grown in confidence. We’ve grown in consistency…and over the last month, when we’ve been in these situations, we’ve won all but one. So, I think we have found ways to win.”
“I feel like it was very calm and we were able to regroup and come together,” sophomore Alivia Hausmann said. “Knowing my teammates have confidence in me and knowing we have confidence in each other, that is why we were able to pull ahead and take that second set.”
The third and final set started differently from the other two as the Bluejays found themselves trailing 4-1 early. However, a trio of kills for the Bluejays tied the score back up. The Bluejays followed this up by taking an 11-9 lead over the Red Storm. This is when the Bluejays were able to take control of the third set by winning seven straight points to take an 18-9 lead. This run included three kills and an ace for the Bluejays. The Bluejays maintained control for the remainder of the match with a pair of kills from Wurtz and Maeder, finishing the match. This gave the Bluejays a 25-15 victory in the third set and their third straight sweep.
“I thought when we were in system, we created a lot of seams and opportunities to attack,” Rosen said. “I thought in the second set they were the aggressors. That’s where you saw the game getting closer from the service line, and they were a little bit better at attacking. It took us too long to get into a groove in the second set…[but] the third set was when we started playing cleaner and really getting after it.”
After the sweep, the Bluejays find themselves sitting on top of the Big East standings with a 14-5 record overall. They remain undefeated in Big East play with a record of 7-0 in conference matches. After hosting Seton Hall for the annual Pinkout game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m., the Bluejays travel to Rhode Island to face Providence on Friday at 4 p.m. before playing at Connecticut on Saturday at 3 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.