Creighton volleyball is the most likely “underdog” you’ve ever seen win.
After several years of hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament only to be knocked out in D.J. Sokol Arena on the first weekend, the national media was expecting Creighton to lose before making it to Pittsburgh.
“No one was picking us other than Bluejay nation, even though we were the higher seed,” head coach Kirsten Booth said.
Creighton was one of just two teams, the other being Florida, that was ranked outside of the top 16 despite hosting the first two rounds of the tournament. The team was ranked outside the top 16 despite coming off a 15-match winning streak in which the Jays only lost one set. It was ranked outside the top 16 despite a perfect record at home and only losing one match with last year’s Big East Player of the Year, Norah Sis, in the lineup.
The narrative was that Creighton was going to lose at home to Minnesota in the second round, failing to escape Omaha yet again.
But that wasn’t what happened.
Creighton came out in front of a packed home crowd and showed exactly why they belong. The balanced attack that had served them well all year had a dominant performance as three Creighton attackers; Ellie Bichelmeyer, Ava Martin and Sis; reached ten kills on the night and the team totaled 20 more kills than the Golden Gophers despite having to go up against an All-Big Ten libero and an elite blocking team.
The Jays hit .255 against a defense which normally only allows opponents to hit .185.
Creighton’s defense, which had struggled the previous night against Colgate, held Minnesota to a .202 hitting percentage.
And all of this should have been expected.
Creighton hit .255, well below their .286 mark on the season.
The match was a rematch from September, when the Jays beat the Gophers in Minneapolis without Sis in the lineup.
Creighton won despite playing against middle blocker Lydia Grote, who had a career high 20 kills in the first matchup between the squads. Grote picked up only two kills and hit -.056 Saturday night. She was completely shut down by Sis, who came off the bench alongside Martin on the first point of each set specifically to get the Sis/Grote matchup.
The Jays kept the Gophers out of system all night, taking 32 more swings than Minnesota, including 17 more in the first set and 14 more in the decisive third.
Creighton showed the late-game poise they’ve had all year, fighting off three Minnesota set points before winning the match on back-to-back kills from Rice transfer Bichelmeyer, who closed her final home game in her only year with the Jays by tooling the Golden Gopher block.
So what’s to say they can’t shock the world again?
Creighton has been an absolute force in their last seventeen matches.
They’ve hit an astonishing .313 while holding opponents to .118, averaging 17 more kills per match on nine more attacks. For most teams, those numbers are outliers on their best games of the season. For Creighton, this has been sustained over half a season of production.
If the likes of Minnesota couldn’t slow this team down or even take a set off of them, I think it’s absolutely possible that Creighton rolls right through the top dogs of the ACC in Louisville and Pitt on the way to the Final Four.
The country slept on this team headed into the tournament. That was a mistake. If it continues to do it now, it’s going to be shocked by what it sees in Pittsburgh on Friday.