#13 Creighton Volleyball Closes Road Trip With Sweep at Villanova
VILLANOVA, Pa. -- The No. 13 Creighton Volleyball team ran its win streak to eight with a 3-0 win at second-place Villanova on Saturday night at Jake Nevin Field House. Scores of the Bluejay sweep were 25-8, 25-15, 25-23.
Creighton improved to 13-5 on the season and 6-0 in BIG EAST and have now won 27 straight head-to-head sets against Villanova (13-4, 4-2 BIG EAST).
Villanova scored the first point of the match before Creighton countered with six in a row and did not trail again the rest of the opener. Kiara Reinhardt had two kills and three blocks in that early surge and finished the first set with three kills and five blocks. CU pulled away with a 5-0 run on Saige Damrow's serve to move in front 14-5, and closed out its 25-8 victory on an ace by Ava Martin. CU hit .571 in the first frame with five blocks and two aces, while holding Villanova to -.154 hitting and just six kills.
CU never trailed in the second set, pulling away to take an 8-5 lead after consecutive aces by freshman Nora Wurtz. Wurtz's third ace of the set came during her next rotation and put the Jays up 17-12. The Wildcats drew within 18-15 before a 7-0 service run by Alivia Hausmann closed out the second set. CU hit .440 in the second set with 13 kills in 21 swings. The Jays also outblocked Nova 4-0 in the frame, including a combo block by Martin and Eloise Brandewie on set point.
The Bluejays used a 5-0 Hausmann service run in the third set to move in front 10-6, but the Wildcats would claw back to take a 15-14 advantage to force Brian Rosen to use a timeout. Creighton went up 20-17 on Maeder's career-high ninth kill of the day. Villanova used a 3-0 run to tie the set at 22-all and force CU's second timeout, but the Jays responded with a kill from Reinhardt. With the score knotted at 23-all, Reinhardt put down her 10th kill and followed it with her seventh block on match point to seal CU's ninth straight sweep over VU.
Martin led Creighton with 13 kills on .414 hitting, while Eloise Brandewie had seven kills. Annalea Maeder had a career-high nine kills to go with 30 assists and seven digs. Reinhardt hit .750, finishing with 10 kills on 12 swings, and recording a match-high seven blocks. Creighton had 45 kills, 29 digs, 10 blocks and seven aces while hitting .457.
Villanova was paced by seven kills by both Abby Harrell and Reagan McGivern. Campbell McKinnon, who entered the night hitting .421 on the season, hit .083 and had five kills. The Wildcats collected 30 kills, 25 digs, two aces, one block and hit .088.
After four straight matches on the road, Creighton returns home on Friday for a 6 p.m. match against St. John's.