LAWRENCE, Kan. — The No. 9 Creighton Volleyball team picked up its first Top 10 win of the season with a 3-1 win over No. 6 Purdue to open play at the Jayhawk Classic on Friday afternoon in Lawrence, Kan.
Scores of the match in Creighton’s favor were 25-21, 17-25, 25-16, 27-25.
Creighton hit a blistering .488 in the opening set, finishing with 22 kill as six different Bluejays had multiple kills. Norah Sis shook of a bloody nose that saw her miss several points in the middle of the set to amass six kills, including the putaway on set point. Kansas natives Ava Martin and Jyaa Johnson combined for nine kills on 15 errorless swings as a Purdue block ranked second nationally went without a stuff. Eva Hudson and Chloe Chicoine combined for nine kills and Purdue hit .417, but it wasn’t enough against the high-powered Bluejay attack.
Purdue evened the match with a 25-17 win in the second set, closing the game on a 10-3 run. Creighton hit -.105 in the set and was blocked five times, while Purdue got four kills by Hudson in the set.
Creighton flipped the momentum in the third set on Martin’s serve. The junior had a pair of kills during a 6-0 surge as the Bluejays took a 12-7 lead and never looked back. Creighton hit .538 in the third frame with 16 kills in 26 swings as Wait dished 15 assists. Five different Bluejays had three or more kills in the third frame, including three kills on three swings by both Kiara Reinhardt and Elise Goetzinger.
Back-to-back aces by Sydney Breissinger helped push the Bluejays in front 8-2 to open the fourth frame. The Boilermakers didn’t relent, fighting back to get within one at 16-15, 17-16 and 18-17 before finally knotting the score at 18-all. Purdue won a challenge to take its first lead of the set at 21-20 when the Bluejays were ruled to be in the net on a kill. After Creighton retook the lead at 22-21, Purdue won another challenge to flip the score in their favor. Creighton held off a set point and got one of their own, only to serve it into the net. But a kill from Martin gave CU another chance, and Reinhardt and Wait stuffed Hudson on match point for the win.
Creighton closes non-conference play on Saturday at 3 p.m. with a match at No. 10 Kansas to close out play at the Jayhawk Classic.
