Staying on top is one of the hardest things to do in sports. The Creighton Bluejay’s volleyball team has managed to stay on top of the Big East for over a decade as they go for their 12th straight Big East regular season championship. The 16th-ranked Bluejays kicked off their title defense with their first Big East game in a home matchup against the Xavier Musketeers, who carried a 12-1 record into the game. In the end, the Bluejays were able to get off to a strong start in conference play, sweeping the Musketeers in three sets. This brought the Bluejay’s record to 8-5 overall.
“I think because of our early success [in the match], we were able to find some different pieces down the stretch,” head coach Brian Rosen. “It was a really good team win, and I think it is going to be a really good RPI win for us as we move forward.”
“I think it’s good for us to face that kind of tempo because we haven’t really faced that yet,” senior Ava Martin said. “Also, those tight sets and having a battle with a scrappy team…playing against those scrappy teams is really going to help us continue building.”
The first set began tightly contested with multiple lead changes and the Musketeers holding a 6-5 lead early in the set. However, the Bluejays were able to storm back with a 6-0 run capped by a kill from senior Kiara Reinhardt that gave the Bluejays an 11-6 first-set lead. The Bluejays and Musketeers then traded points back and forth for the rest of the set, when Reinhardt ended the first set with a kill to win the first set 25-18. Attacking had an enormous impact in the first set, with the Bluejays finishing with 15 kills in the first set.
“I thought our serving was really aggressive,” Martin said. “Getting them out of their system helped us a lot. So then, I felt like we were able to make more digs and turn those around [into points] was our mindset.”
The second set was even more competitive than the first set. After the Bluejays took an 8-7 lead early in the set, the Musketeers scored four straight points. This was highlighted by a pair of kills that gave Xavier an 11-8 lead, forcing the Bluejays to take their first timeout of the set. Following the timeout, the Bluejays scored four out of the next five points to take a 13-12 lead. The rest of the set was just as close, with neither team able to gain much of an advantage. With the score tied at 22, Martin scored an important kill to give the Bluejays a 23-22 lead. The two teams then exchanged points, with the Bluejays having set point at 24-23. Senior Jaya Johnson ended the set with a massive kill to give the Bluejays a 25-23 second-set win.
“We need those because we’re going to be in situations like that where we’ve got to figure out ways to win even when it’s not feeling great,” Rosen said. “It’s actually something that we’ve talked about as a team. When things aren’t going great, when things aren’t there, how can we grind? How can we show grit? I thought they really showed those things off in the second set.”
“That set was huge,” Martin said. “They’re such a scrappy team, and we knew if we gave them that set, it was going to be a battle. We knew that we wanted to come out strong, but that was a huge set for us to get that momentum. We talked about it in the third set, getting back to our game, because that second set wasn’t the cleanest and being able to finish from there.”
The decisive third set got off to a similar start as the first two sets. Following a kill from Xavier, the Bluejays held a slim 8-7 lead. However, a kill from Martin started a 7-3 run for the Bluejays that gave them a 15-10 lead going into the media timeout. After the timeout, an ace from the Bluejays continued the momentum, kickstarting a 4-0 run. This led to a 19-10 Bluejay lead. The Bluejays held onto this lead for the remainder of the set to grab a 25-16 third-set win to complete the sweep.
“We knew we could play better than we did in that second set,” Reinhardt said. “We switched our mindset at the beginning of the third set to bring all we got and go out there and attack. We were firing on all cylinders and playing a little bit more as a team.”
This win gave the Bluejays their first conference win of the season as they begin their quest for their 12th straight Big East regular season championship, and was also their third straight sweep this season.
“I thought it was a really hard-fought win,” Rosen said. “That is a routine for winning a lot of games this season, but they all present different challenges. That is the fastest team that we’ve played all season. So, when they’re in system, they’re really hard to defend…But I thought we played really well defensively in all three sets.”
After hosting the Butler Bulldogs at 6 p.m. Saturday, the Bluejays will travel to Milwaukee, Wisc., to face Marquette on Thursday. This match is likely to determine the top of the Big East standings and is slated to begin at 6 p.m.
