ALLY SEEVERS/THE CREIGHTONIAN
Junior Trinity Shadd-Ceres celebrates with senior Saige Damrow and junior Ayden Ames during the first set. The Bluejays ultimately lost to the defending champions Texas A&M in four sets.
“Embrace it.”
With his team already matching its highest loss total since 2017 (26-7), second-year head coach Brian Rosen urged his team to embrace adversity amid the program’s longest losing streak in nearly a quarter-century.
No. 25 Creighton volleyball fell in four sets to defending national champion Texas A&M Sunday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd at D.J. Sokol Arena for the Bluejays’ final non-conference matchup. For a team seeking its third straight Elite Eight appearance, adversity has arrived earlier than expected.
“We’re pretty frustrated,” junior Ayden Ames said. “But losses can bring out the best or worst in you, and I think it’s the way you go about the next game.”
The outside hitter duo of 2025 Final Four Most Outstanding Player Kyndal Stowers and Marquette transfer Natalie Ring found holes in the Creighton defense early and often as A&M sustained several runs through the first two sets, including a crushing 8-2 rally that erased a Creighton set point and gave the Aggies the second set, putting the Bluejays in a 2-0 hole.
“They’re too good to [allow] huge runs, so we needed to keep it closer,” Rosen said.
Creighton responded with their lone set win of the day. They were bolstered by strong sequences from juniors Nora Wurtz and Trinity Shadd-Ceres, who each had three kills. The Jays took a narrow win, 23-25, albeit in controversial fashion.
After entering the game as an injury replacement for A&M’s starting middle Eliza Sharp, true freshman Lolufe Adedji delivered what appeared to be a kill on a Creighton game point. However, to the surprise of the crowd and the disbelief of A&M head coach Jamie Morrison, the ball was ruled out. With Morrison having previously exhausted his challenges, the call went unreviewed, prompting a fourth set.
A&M made quick work of the final set, firing through a 10-3 run to end the match with a 25-15 fourth set victory. Stowers collected five more kills in the final game, contributing to her match-leading 21.
Now mired in a five-game losing streak, the longest winless stretch for the program since dropping 11 straight in 2002, both coaches and players are looking forward to putting a tough preseason schedule behind them with the more predictable Big East calendar ahead.
“It’ll be nice to actually get into the routine of conference play and having practice days strung together where we can work on some of the things we’ve seen over the last few weeks,” Rosen said.
Rosen referenced making several lineup changes ahead of the match–notably moving middle blocker Ames to an outside hitter spot –– and having only a 60-minute walk-through the day before to install that group. Ames responded to the change by leading the team with 13 kills, one ahead of teammate Shadd-Ceres.
“I’m grateful I’m trusted to take swings out there,” Ames said. “I was an outside in high school, so it feels awesome to be back out there again, I’m trying to get that muscle memory back.
After a grueling non-conference schedule, Rosen expects strong challengers to emerge in the Big East, where the Bluejays have won 11 of 13 titles since joining the league in 2013.
“I think this is the best the Big East’s ever been; our league looks really good right now,” Rosen said.
Ironically, the Bluejays will enter Big East contests as the conference’s only ranked team, despite being the only squad to post a losing record in the preseason. Creighton is currently clinging to the No. 25 spot in the latest AVCA coaches poll following Sunday’s defeat, edging out Vanderbilt by a mere 13 points for the final spot.
The conference slate begins with a trip to the East Coast next weekend, where the Jays will face off against Seton Hall (8-4) and St. John’s (10-3).
“All of our attention is on our next game … We prepare the same for everyone,” Wurtz said.
Creighton begins its quest for a seventh straight Big East crown tonight. The match will be televised on ESPN+. First serve is set for 4 p.m.