Creighton didn’t enter the NCAA Tournament as a headline favorite, but on Thursday afternoon the Bluejays looked every bit like a team built for the playoff’s biggest moments.
No. 11 Creighton powered past No. 8 Arizona State, 3-1, at Memorial Coliseum to reach its second straight Elite Eight—only its third regional final berth in program history. After the teams split two tightly contested sets, the Bluejays overwhelmed the Sun Devils in the third and fourth.
The match opened with the kind of volatility expected between two top-15 seeds. Creighton led early in the first set before ASU’s two setter system found its footing. ASU setter Brynn Covell landed back-to-back aces for the Sun Devils, who had a 15-13 lead at the media timeout. Out of a Creighton timeout, Ava Martin steadied things with a sharp kill. Tied 16-16, Nora Wurtz flipped an ace that dribbled over the tape and stunned ASU’s front line.
Jaya Johnson and Kiara Reinhardt then delivered key swings to push the Jays ahead 20-18, though—as would become a theme—ASU clawed back after its timeout to tie the set at 23. Johnson earned set point with a kill, but the Sun Devils extended the set until Martin finished it off, 26-24.
Set two followed a similar pace but leaned towards Arizona State’s control. Creighton flashed what would become its late-match strengths: Maeder snuck in a setter dumb at 7-5, Johnson swung aggressively, and Creighton picked up points by tooling ASU’s block. But the Jays never fully settled into serve receive. ASU hit .360 and went on a 4-0 run to build a 17-14 advantage it never relinquished. Two late blocks secured the 25-19 Sun Devil win to even the match.
Momentum flipped for good early in the third. At 3-2, officials ruled that Sydney Breissinger’s pancake dig hit the floor. Creighton challenged. When play resumed, the Jays emerged sharper and more assertive than at any point in the match. An 8-3 lead forced an ASU timeout. Creighton’s passing, which had been spotty at times in the first two sets, snapped into form.
“They just spun the rotation just slightly,” ASU head coach JJ Van Neil said. “They got their really good servers on the line…they were playing really good volleyball…really, really scrappy.”
Scrappy hardly covered it. With Martin drawing the brunt of ASU’s blocking attention, Johnson and Reinhardt erupted on the right side, combining for momentum-shifting blocks and angled attacks. The Jays piled up 17 kills to smother ASU’s increasing reliance on tip-and-roll offense. Their .600 hitting was the program’s best single-set percentage in NCAA tournament play.
“Our game plan was every time they tip or roll a shot at us, we have to take care of that and put the ball away,” Reinhardt said. “We all fed off each other so well today.”
Set four opened much like the third ended, with Creighton in command. Breissinger delivered consecutive aces in a 3-0 start, and ASU’s serve-receive began to collapse as the Jays varied their zones and velocity. Breissinger credited assistant coach Adam Kessenich for developing their approach.
“We talked about mixing [serves] short and deep…and we worked that a lot more in sets three and four,” she said. “We trust every single person to go back behind the line and put in a great serve.”
Martin scored her 22nd kill at the media timeout to stretch the lead to 15-10. Even out-of-system balls turned into points, as Abbey Hayes dinked a redirected dig into open space near ASU’s right pin. The Sun Devils’ offense grew increasingly reliant on soft shots, and Creighton’s defense devoured them.
Creighton head coach Brian Rosen praised his team for refusing to fixate on any one point and instead zeroing in on the aspects of ASU’s offense they could exploit.
“We wanted to ramp up service pressure,” he said. “[ASU’s] gonna get their kills, but what can score is the tip, the roll, the offspeed—and I don’t know if one did today.”
Reinhardt capped the set, and the match, with a kill for a 25-18 victory. The Jays are now one win away from the final four. Creighton will face Kentucky Saturday at 4 p.m. for a chance to advance. Arizona State coach JJ Van Neil acknowledged Creighton’s quality, even if the Bluejays have flown under the national radar.
“They’ve been playing great volleyball all year. They probably don’t get the credit because they’re not in as tough of a conference [the Big East], but they were really good in the preseason. I think in any conference, going undefeated is an impressive feat, and they did it,” Van Neil said.
With another big test ahead, the Bluejays are eager to continue showing what they can do on a national stage. Ava Martin emphasized the team’s chemistry and the joy of playing together.
“We want to keep playing because we love this group of girls, and it’s just so fun when we’re out there playing together,” she said. “Obviously, winning is amazing, but we get to do it with each other.”
On Saturday, the Jays have the chance to go further in the tournament than the program ever has. Many players who returned from last year’s run to the Elite Eight are eager to build on that experience.
“There’s a good amount of us who lost [the semifinal] last year, and we’re all pretty hungry,” Martin said. “Our goal this year is to make the Final Four. We’re taking it one game at a time, and that’s been our goal this whole season.”
