OMAHA, Neb. — The No. 6 Creighton Volleyball team needed just 73 minutes to post a convincing 3-0 sweep over Providence on Friday night, opening BIG EAST play with a victory for the 11th straight season. Scores of the victory were 25-10, 25-12, 25-13.
Creighton (10-2, 1-0 BIG EAST) unveiled new royal blue jerseys sporting its old Jays script logo as a part of a theme to honor its more than two dozen alumni who returned for the match.
Destiny Ndam-Simpson led Creighton with nine kills while Ava Martin had eight. Maddy Bilinovic topped all players with 14 digs and Sydney Breissinger had 10 digs and a pair of aces. The Bluejays used 17 different women in the match, building large leads in each set and finished the evening with 43 kills, 48 digs, eight blocks and five aces while hitting .375.
Providence (7-5, 0-1 BIG EAST) had 17 kills, 28 digs, three blocks and one ace while hitting -.033. PC’s 17 kills were tied for the fifth-fewest ever allowed by Creighton for a match, and the -.033 hitting was the 10th best defensive effort ever turned in by the Bluejays. Shaliyah Rhoden had eight kills for PC, but was the only Friar with more than three.
Creighton wasted no time setting the tone early, as Bilinovic served the Bluejays to a 6-0 lead to begin the match. CU hit .417 and Rhoden had all three of PC’s first set kills. Reigning National Player of the Week Kendra Wait dished 10 assists and had three digs, a block and an ace.
PC’s lone lead of the night came to open the second set, when the Friars scored the first three points. The final point came after winning a point challenged by Creighton, but the Bluejays used that time to regroup and promptly uncorked a 10-0 run on Breissinger’s serve. Elise Goetzinger had three blocks in that span, and CU maintained a lead of at least five points the rest of the set. Ndam-Simpson started the set in place of Martin and contributed six kills on .462 hitting while also adding a pair of blocks. Bilinovic and Breissinger each had five digs as PC once again had more errors (7) than kills (6).
Breissinger served CU to a 4-0 lead to open the third and final frame as Wait had a pair of kills. The lead grew to double-figures at 16-6 on a kill from Martin, and CU cruised home to sweep the Friars for the 16th time in 17 meetings. Six different Bluejays had multiple kills in the final set, including a pair by Ava TeStrake who finished the night hitting 1.000 on four swings.
Creighton returns to the court on Sunday at 1 p.m. when it hosts Connecticut on a Powder Blue Out. The Huskies started the season 12-0 before dropping their league lid-lifter on Friday night at Marquette.
