No. 13 Jays battle San Diego and UC Santa Barbara to victory, fall to USC
This past weekend, the No. 13 Creighton Bluejays volleyball team took on three California teams as a part of the Trojan Invitational at the University of Southern California.
After a big win the previous weekend against Kansas, the Jays were looking to continue their success out west.
In first match of the weekend, the Bluejays faced off against San Diego in a tough match. Creighton got off to a strong start in the first set, closing it out 25-15.
The second set played out similarly, and Creighton kept the win streak going winning 25-18. But, in the third set, the Jays ran into some trouble. San Diego went on two big serving runs that the Bluejays were unable to find an answer for, and eventually lost the set 21-25.
Creighton got their game back in the fourth set with help from senior Kiara Reinhardt, who had 15 kills on the day.
“She [Kiara] brings so much to our team. She’s a leader, she’s an energy bus person for us. When she’s going, our team is going because you know you can’t get a middle going unless we’re passing well, setting well. So I just love when we can have a middle lead our team and kill, that’s the sign of a really good match,” Head Coach Brian Rosen said.
The Jays finished the set in similar fashion to the first, 25-15, beating San Diego 3-1.
In their second match of the weekend, the Bluejays took on the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in a five-set thriller.
“I think Santa Barbara will be a top-40 team at the end of the year, they are going to win a ton of games,” Rosen said.
While the Jays got off to a slow start in the first set, Ava Martin came out swinging. By the time the Bluejays tied the score at 6-6, Martin already had three kills on the day.
“Ava’s pretty good, I love that she got off to a three-kill start right in the beginning of the first set to give her confidence,” Rosen said.
While the Bluejays went on a four-point serving run by freshman Abbey Hayes to hold off Santa Barbara, it wasn’t enough, and the Gauchos took the opening set, 25-19.
“Abbey just came in and brought a calmness to the court. Challenged some blocks, got a couple kills for us, went on some serving runs. I love that she was kind of able to make an impact,” Rosen said.
It was a game of serves yet again in the second set, with the Bluejays coming out on top thanks to many strong serves from redshirt freshman Nora Wurtz.
“I get a lot of questions about why I have a middle serve for a middle, but Nora Wurtz’s serve is just so impressive,” Rosen said. “It just comes at you so fast from a different angle, she hits seams so well … She is the most feared server in our gym.”
With Wurtz’s serve combined with some strong kills from junior Eloise Brandewie, Creighton was able to take set two, 25-17.
Set three was close, but ultimately Creighton dropped it 23-25 and it all came down to the fifth set.
In the final set, redshirt sophomore Saige Damrow led the way with a couple of great digs and a serving run to start the Jays off.
“She brings a great voice to the court,” Rosen said of Damrow. “She’s always talking about what’s happening on the court, where we need to be defensively. She does a really nice job of making sure everybody’s in the right place.”
With another kill from Martin, the Bluejays ended the match with 15-10 win in the fifth set.
“[Santa Barbara] brought some different tests to us, their outsides were really good and challenged us from the pins. I loved their fight and I loved the fact that we had to play a fifth set and find a way to win,” Rosen said.
With the title of the Trojan Invitational on the line, the Bluejays faced off against the host team, No. 22 Southern California. Battling illness, Brandewie was not able to play in this match and Creighton felt the loss.
While playing tough in the first two matches, the Bluejays fell 23-25 in the first set and 22-25 in the second.
“I thought again in the first two sets we played really good volleyball. We had chances to win both of them, and got stuck in rotations and couldn’t side out at the end game,” Rosen said.
In the third set, Creighton tried to string together a couple serving runs, but it was no match for the Trojans playing on their home court. The Jays dropped the set 16-25 and lost the match 0-3.
“They’re a good blocking team, they’re super athletic, they’re big, they’re very physical. I did not think we took great swings at times. I thought we kind of gave balls to their blocks some and could have covered some more balls. I think that’s definitely an area that we’ve got to get better,” Rosen said.
The Bluejays will hit the court again for their first home match today against No.4 Louisville at D.J. Sokol Arena. The first serve is set for 8 p.m. and will air on Fox Sports 1.