Creighton knocks off Wyoming in Shocker Classic

Creighton knocks off Wyoming in Shocker Classic
September 17th, 2021 | gocreighton.com

WICHITA, Kan. — Extended serving runs by Abby Bottomley and Keeley Davis helped the No. 17 Creighton Volleyball team match its best start ever (10-1) with a 3-0 sweep of Wyoming on Friday afternoon at the Shocker Volleyball Classic in Wichita, Kan. Scores of the match were 25-19, 25-10, 25-19.

The victory marks the first time Creighton has won 10 or more non-conference matches in the same regular-season.

Bottomley served an 8-0 run that featured a career-high five aces to help Creighton take a 25-19 win in the opening set. The senior’s work behind the service line pushed the Bluejay lead to 13-5 and Wyoming never got any closer than four the rest of the set. Bottomley led CU with six digs and five aces, while Jaela Zimmerman had five kills to pace the offensive attack.

A 13-0 serving spree by Davis helped Creighton run away with the second set. The junior tied her career-high with three aces in the second set alone while bolting to a 17-3 lead. Wyoming had just three kills and 11 attack errors in 40 swings during the second set, hitting -.200.  Bottomley keyed CU’s defense with 10 digs in the game.

Wyoming (6-4) went ahead 11-8 early in the third set with seven kills in its first 10 swings before three straight attack errors evened the score at 11-all. The Bluejay block helped move Creighton ahead 20-15 en route to a 25-19 victory in the finale.

“The difference was we had some huge serving runs,” said Creighton head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. “Keeley’s serving run in the second game was pretty remarkable and Abby had a huge one in the first game. When they’re (Wyoming’s) in system they’re pretty potent. The right side and middle attack is really good. I didn’t think offensively we were as good as we needed to be and I thought we had some blocks that we gave up that we probably could have had, but I did think we won the first contact battle which was a goal of ours.”

Bottomley had 21 digs and CU finished with nine blocks while holding Wyoming to .016 hitting in 125 attacks. Zimmerman had a match-high nine kills and Bottomley owned five of CU’s nine aces on the day.

Wyoming was paced by nine kills from Naya Shime, though she also had eight attack errors. The Cowgirls finished with 28 kills, 62 digs and three blocks but did not record an ace.

Creighton returns to action with a pair of matches on Saturday. The Bluejays face South Dakota at Noon before a 7 p.m. contest vs. tournament host Wichita State.

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