LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the second time in six days, No. 9 Creighton Volleyball program pushed a top-five opponent on the road, but once again the hosts prevailed as No. 4 Louisville pulled out the fifth set in a Top 10 battle in Louisville to close out play at the Cardinal Classic. The match was played at KFC Yum! Center, home of the 2024 Women’s Volleyball Final Four.
Scores of the match in favor of Louisville (7-1) were 25-18, 25-20, 10-25, 15-25, 15-8.
Creighton (7-2) scored the first two points of the match before Louisville libero Elena Scott served a 5-0 run. The Bluejays climbed back to even at 7-7, only to allow a 5-1 surge that precipitated a timeout with CU trailing 12-8. Creighton threatened, but could not overcome the difference as the UofL won the opening frame. Creighton had 10 kills, but just as many errors, as it hit .000 in 42 swings in the opener. Louisville outblocked CU 5-1, with PK Kong picking up three of those rejections.
The second set featured five early ties before a 6-0 run by the Cardinals helped the hosts take a 10-5 advantage. Louisville stretched its lead to 20-13 before three points in a row drew the Jays within two at 20-18 to put a scare into the Cards. Louisville took the momentum back on a CU serving error and a solo block by Cara Cresse and closed out the set with a 25-20 win on a kill by Charitie Luper. Creighton hit .275 in the second frame but couldn’t contain a Louisville offense that hit .417.
Sydney Breissinger led Creighton’s comeback in the third set with a 10-0 serving run to catapult the Bluejays into a 16-6 lead. Creighton never relented, adding five blocks and two aces while holding Louisville to -.098 hitting in Creighton’s 25-10 romp. Goetzinger had five kills in the game.
Creighton never trailed in the fourth set, taking a quick lead and holding off the Cardinals to force a fifth set. The Jays went ahead by as much as 11-5 and 14-8 before 4-of-5 points went Louisville’s way to force a timeout. CU answered with 10 of the next 13 points to force its second five-setter of the week after dropping the first two sets, having also done so at No. 5 Nebraska on Tuesday. Creighton hit .273 in the frame as Louisville hit .000 with 11 kills but 11 errors in 36 swings.
Louisville opened the fifth set with a serving error before countering with three points in a row to take their first lead since intermission. Creighton won a challenge to stop that burst, only to have UofL score the next three to move in front 6-2 and lead to a Bluejay timeout. The Cards led 8-4 as the teams swapped benches and that margin grew to 12-4 on a 6-0 serving run from Luper. A kill by Anna DeBeer ended the match and sent the pro-Louisville crowd of 5,970 home happy. Louisville hit .316 in the finale and had three blocks to hold CU to -.100 hitting on 20 swings.
Goetzinger finished with a season-high 14 kills to go with a team-best six blocks, while Wait approached a triple-double and collected 37 assists, 13 digs, six kills, three blocks and a pair of aces. Maddy Bilinovic led CU’s defense with a career-high 27 digs. The Bluejays hit .146 and finished with 49 kills, 71 digs, 11 blocks and five aces.
Luper topped Louisville with 17 kills and ACC Player of the Year DeBeer had 11 kills but was held to .048 hitting. Elena Scott topped Louisville with 23 digs. Louisville finished with 53 kills, 68 digs, 13 blocks and four aces while hitting .133.
Creighton will conclude non-conference play with the Jayhawk Classic next week in Lawrence, Kan. The Bluejays meet No. 7 Purdue (8-0) on Friday at 4 p.m. before taking on No. 11 Kansas (7-0) on Saturday at 3 p.m.
NOTES: The match was the program’s first contest to ever air on ESPN … All three Louisville/Creighton matches have gone three sets … Maddy Bilinovic’s previous career-high in digs was 22 when she played for Penn State … Among the milestones reached by a few Creighton seniors today were Maddy Bilinovic passing 900 career digs and Kendra Wait recording 4,000 career assists … Creighton fell to 4-20 all-time against Top 25 teams … Creighton is now 2-3 when both it and its opponent are ranked in the Top 10 … Creighton is 8-35 all-time against the Top 10 and 27-88 against Top 25 opponents … Creighton had won 34 straight matches when owning a better hitting percentage than its opponent … The match featured just four lead changes.
All Cardinal Classic
Charitie Luper (MVP)
All-Cardinal Classic Team
Elena Scott (Louisville)
Sofia Maldonado Diaz (Louisville)
Elise Goetzinger (Creighton)
Maddy Bilinovic (Creighton)
Olivia Tjernagel (Northern Iowa)
Cindy Tchouangwa (Rice)
