The Creighton volleyball team captured its first Big East title in program history by sweeping a pair of matches at Providence and St. Johns this past weekend and extended its current win-streak to 10 games.
Creighton (22-7, 15-1 Big East) started with in a clean sweep of Providence on Friday night with scores of 25-15, 25-10 and 25-12. The win on Friday put the Jays within one win of capturing the crown.
Friday night’s match was won in large part because of the efforts of sophomore outside hitter Jess Bird and sophomore middle blocker Lauren Smith. Bird and Smith collected 12 and 11 kills respectively, while cruising to the ninth straight victory that set up the showdown on Saturday night.
Saturday night’s victory over St. John’s in Queens, N.Y. brought the first Big East volleyball title back to Omaha. The Jays won with scores of 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 21-25, and 15-13 in a 3-2 victorious effort.
The Jays controlled the majority of the opening set. Creighton never trailed and at one point held a comfortable 22-15 lead, but St. John’s went on a 5-0 run and forced coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth to use the Jays’ pair of timeouts. Bird then put the nail in the coffin with two consecutive kills and an ace serve on the set point to give the Jays a 25-21 win.
The second set was highlighted by several momentum swings. Creighton pulled ahead 5-0, but St. John’s responded to pull within one, 11-10. The Jays then went on a 6-1 run, only to see the Red Storm use a 7-1 run of its own to tie the match at 18. Creighton used a 4-0 run keyed by three blocks by a combined effort of senior setter Michelle Sicner and Smith to move within three points of a third set victory, but St. John’s rallied to tie the set at 22. Finally, the Jays scored three straight to build a 2-0 advantage in the match.
The third set was close the entire way, but the Red Storm found a way to seal a four-point victory and hold the Jays’ celebration.
Creighton started the fourth set with a 6-1 advantage, but could not hold steady. St. John’s seized the Jays’ momentum and gained a 10-9 advantage. After a 12-12 tie, the Red Storm scored three-straight points and never trailed on its way to a 25-21 victory to force a fifth set.
Creighton was poised to leave New York with the title and played with an extra spark in the deciding set. The Jays never trailed and Bird finished off the set with a kill that ultimately captured the BIG EAST Conference title for the first time in school history.
Sicner led Creighton with 32 assists and seven blocks while Smith, Browning and Bird contributed with 10 kills each.
“The conference title is one of our big goals,” Booth said. “We wanted to win the Big East title this year. It was not a huge celebration. We’ve set ourselves up to win it. We’re happy to be co-champs, but our goal is to win it outright, so it comes down to next weekend and making sure we take care of things so we can be the one team at the top.”
“It was a great win, and we knew what we were playing for,” Smith said.
Junior defensive specialist Kate Elman, who has been out part of the season with a wrist injury, gives the credit of this season’s success to the upperclassmen.
“We only have one new player on the court this year, and a lot of our personnel are upperclassmen now,” she said. “We started to realize that it is over for them after this and that we need to get [a conference championship] done now, because there is no tomorrow.”
While this is the first Big East conference championship for Creighton, this marks the second time in three years the volleyball team has won a conference title. The title also marks the first BIG EAST conference title in any women’s sport.
The Jays will be back at D.J. Sokol Arena Friday at 7 p.m. against Villanova and on Sunday against Seton Hall at 1 p.m.