MATCH STATS
- No. 13 Creighton def. Georgetown 3-1 (25-12, 25-11, 20-25, 25-11)
- Creighton moves to 8-4, 1-0 Big East; Georgetown falls to 6-7, 0-1 Big East
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Attendance: 1,637
- Box Score
OMAHA, Nebraska – Even without All-American setter Lydia Dimke in the lineup, No. 13 Creighton managed to keep its Big East win streak alive at 25 regular season matches with a four-set win over Georgetown on Friday.
Junior defensive specialist Samantha Bohnet and sophomore middle blocker Megan Ballenger split the setting duties for the Bluejays and guided the team to a .446 hitting effort in the victory. It was Ballenger’s debut at setter, but she performed valiantly with 23 assists to go with eight kills, four digs and a block. For her part, Bohnet notched 24 assists, three aces and four digs.
Offensively, the duo looked to junior outside hitter Jaali Winters (15), junior outside Taryn Kloth (15) and senior middle Marysa Wilkinson (14) to guide the team in kills, with each turning in double-digit efforts and hitting over .400. Wilkinson and Kloth each hit at a .542 clip, while Kloth rounded out a double-double with 10 digs and Wilkinson managed a team-best four blocks. Winters also notched a double-double, adding 13 digs to her 15 kills and .406 hitting performance. Sophomore libero Brittany Witt paced the backcourt with 20 digs.
Junior middle Symone Speech tallied a match-high 16 kills for Georgetown, while junior outside Olivia King added 11, but it was not enough for the Hoyas. Speech hit at a team-best .343 clip and put up two blocks alongside sophomore middles Madison Smith and Emily Herrington. Junior libero Kenzie Higareda (16) and junior setter Paige McKnight (12) managed double-digit dig efforts for the Hoyas. McKnight tacked on 32 assists to finish out a double-double.
Creighton was off to a quick start in the match, posting 10 of the first 12 points, including two kills each by Ballenger and Naomi Hickman. Four Georgetown miscues helped boost the lead to 11 at 18-7. The Hoyas scored three of the next five to slow the Bluejays momentarily, but Creighton used a 5-2 run to close out the 25-12 win. Winters pounded down four kills in the final stretch.
The Bluejays carried the momentum into Set 2, cruising to a 14-5 lead. Three Kloth putaways, three Hoya miscues and two aces helped Creighton to the advantage. A service error and a Alyssa Sinnette kill cut the margin to seven at 14-7, but Creighton got the points back and more witha 6-1 run that pushed the margin to 12 at 20-8. Three Georgetown errors aided the run. The Hoyas scored three of the next four, all on Speech kills, but it was not enough. Kloth tallied two kills and Jaclyn Taylor added a third to set up a final putaway by Winters.
Georgetown hit at a .400 clip in Set 3 en route to a 25-20 win to extend the match. The Hoyas scored three of the first four points, two on Speech kills, en route to a 7-5 advantage. Creighton took the lead at 8-7 on a hitting error, but kills by McKnight and King and a Bluejay error put Georgetown up 10-9. Two Speech kills and two from King put the Hoyas up 17-14. The Bluejays cut the margin to two four times, last at 22-20, but Georgetown held strong, wrapping up the win with three straight points. A Speech kill set up a pair of Herrington stuffs to end the set.
Creighton came out swinging in Set 4, making its way to a 16-6 lead with a trio of blocks as well as five Kloth putaways. The teams split the next six points to make it 19-9. The Bluejays scored four straight, including two Hoya errors, to go up 23-9. A Wilkinson kill put Creighton on the hill and Hickman finished the match off two serves later.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy: Creighton Athletics
No. 15 Creighton hit .446 in a 3-1 win over Georgetown on Friday night in the BIG EAST Volleyball opener for both teams. The hitting percentage is the best mark for any four-set match in school history.
Scores of the match in favor of the victorious hosts were 25-12, 25-11, 20-25, 25-11. It was Creighton’s 25th consecutive regular-season BIG EAST victory, the third-longest streak in league history.
Playing without BIG EAST Player of the Year Lydia Dimke for the second straight match, the Bluejays showed off their versatility by unveiling an offense that featured Samantha Bohnet and Megan Ballenger splitting time at the setter position. Bohnet dished 24 assists while Ballenger added 23 helpers to quarterback the Bluejays to their fourth-highest hitting percentage in school history for a match of any length. Ballenger also had eight kills, four digs and a block, while Bohnet served up three aces to equal her previous best done in last year’s visit to Omaha by Georgetown.
Taryn Kloth had her first career double-double, finishing with 15 kills and 10 digs, while junior classmate Jaali Winters also had a double-double with 15 kills and 13 digs. Kloth hit at a .542 clip, as did senior middle blocker Marysa Wilkinson, who finished with 14 kills. Brittany Witt tied her season-high with 20 digs. Creighton had 62 kills, five aces, 61 digs and six blocks overall.
Georgetown (6-7, 0-1 BIG EAST) was led by Symone Speech, who had 16 kills and hit .343. Kenzie Higareda had 16 digs and Paige McKnight tallied 32 assists and a dozen digs. GU hit .179 and finished with 40 kills, two aces, 43 digs and four blocks on the evening.
Creighton (8-4, 1-0 BIG EAST) never trailed in the opening two sets, finishing with 16 kills and one attack error in each frame. The Hoyas hit .400 in the third frame to win their first set in Omaha in 13 tries. GU took the lead on consecutive kills by Speech to move ahead 14-12. Up 22-20, Speech had a kill before Emily Herrington closed out the set with consecutive blocks. Speech had eight kills in the third frame.
The Bluejays reverted to their pre-intermission ways in the fourth set to dominate a 25-11 finale. Witt served up a 6-0 run as CU moved ahead 8-2, and the lead grew to 16-6 after Ballenger and Winters stuffed Madison Smith. A kill from Creighton freshman Naomi Hickmanclosed out the contest. CU had four blocks in the final set, holding the Hoyas to -.031 hitting in 31 swings. CU out-dug GU 19-9 in the fourth set.
Creighton hosts Villanova on Sunday at 1 pm.
NOTES: Creighton improved to 9-0 all-time against Georgetown, including a 5-0 mark in Omaha … Creighton improved to 64-7 all-time in regular-season BIG EAST play with its 25th straight league victory … Creighton has won 20 straight BIG EAST regular-season matches at home and is 66-7 all-time in conference home matches at D.J. Sokol Arena … Creighton improved to 16-8 all-time in conference openers, including a 13-2 mark under Kirsten Bernthal Booth. This was CU’s fourth straight win to open league play … Creighton has won 97 straight matches when hitting .300 or better … Megan Ballenger had 23 assists in four sets on Friday after entering the contest with 32 career assists in 145 sets played. Ballenger admitted after the match that her previous setting experience consisted of “a couple weeks in high school” … The crowd of 1,637 was Creighton’s 20th-largest home crowd in history … Taryn Kloth‘s 10 digs were a career-high … Creighton snapped a rare two-match losing streak with the victory … Creighton was the unanimous pick to win the BIG EAST, while Georgetown was picked ninth in the preseason poll … Jaali Winters moved into eighth in CU history in career kills. She now has 1,129 to surpass Allie Oelke’s 1,126 from 2007-10 … Marysa Wilkinson surged from 15th to 13th on Creighton’s all-time kills list, passing Jess Bird (965) and Erin Swanson (955). Her 14 kills give her 968 in her career.
Courtesy: Georgetown Athletics
Georgetown University’s volleyball team lost its 2017 BIG EAST opener with a 3-1 (25-12, 25-11, 20-25, 25-11) setback to No 15 Creighton on Friday evening. The Hoyas fall to 6-7 overall and 0-1 in league play.
Symone Speech (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park-River Forest) led Georgetown with a match-high 16 kills and hit at a .343 clip while Olivia King (Ardmore, Pa./Lower Merion) added 11 kills.
Paige McKnight (Atlanta, Ga./Dunwoody) posted a double-double with 32 assists and 12 digs while Kenzie Higareda (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) anchored the back row with 16 digs.
Creighton (8-4, 1-0 BIG EAST) took an early 7-2 lead in the opening frame leading to a GU timeout, and eventually led 10-2 before back-to-back kills from Speech and King cut the deficit to 10-4. The Bluejays responded with a 10-5 run to force the Hoyas to take their final timeout. Coming out of the huddle, CU held the Blue & Gray at bay the rest of the frame en route to the 25-12 set win.
In the second set, Creighton posted an early 5-1 lead before the Hoyas responded with four of the next nine points to cut the deficit to 10-5 on a kill from King. A 7-2 run from Creighton followed by spurts of 3-0 and 5-1 to close out the stanza gave the Bluejays a 2-0 lead in the match.
Georgetown battled back in the third set, opening things up with a 3-1 lead behind a pair of Speech kills. The Bluejays countered and eventually took the lead at 8-7, but the resilient Hoyas pushed right back with a 4-2 run to lead 11-10. Creighton would manage to knot things up against at 12-12, but a Speech putaway on the next point gave GU the lead for good and the Blue & Gray closed out the set on a 5-2 run to claim the 25-20 victory.
Creighton looked to put the match away behind an early 8-2 start to the fourth set. Consecutive points from the Hoyas out of a subsequent timeout cut the deficit to four but CU answered with an 8-2 run to lead 16-6 and force GU’s final timeout. The Bluejays closed out the frame by winning nine of the final 14 points to seal the 3-1 match decision.
Jaali Winters and Taryn Kloth both notched double-doubles for Creighton with 15 kills each and 13 and 10 digs, respectively. Marysa Wilkinson added 14 kills and Brittany Witt hauled in 20 digs.
Georgetown is back in action on Sunday as it returns to the East Coast to take on Providence in BIG EAST play at 1 p.m. Live stats will be available at www.GUHoyas.com and the match will be broadcast on the BIG EAST Digital Network with Chris Fama calling the action.
Leave a Reply