Ninth-Seeded Volleyball Drops NCAA Second Round Match To Michigan State
Release courtesy of Creighton Athletics
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OMAHA, Neb. – The ninth-seeded Creighton volleyball team fell to Michigan State during the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night in front of 2,415 fans at D.J. Sokol Arena – the fourth largest crowd in the venue's history.
Scores of the match in favor of Michigan State were 25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 25-16.
Autumn Bailey led the Spartans with 18 kills, while three other Michigan State players had 13.
Creighton (26-7) had three players with double-figure kills, led by senior Marysa Wilkinson with 13. Wilkinson ended her Bluejay career with 1,183 career, eighth-most in team history.
Saturday's action started with a first set race to 25 points that featured 12 ties and four lead changes. Consecutive service aces by
Lydia Dimke gave Creighton a 9-8 lead, only the Bluejays' second advantage during early action. A kill by
Naomi Hickman gave Creighton a 12-9 edge, the first and only lead of more than two points by either team during the first set. Michigan State (23-8) used a kill from Holly Toliver to take a 22-21 lead, the team's first since leading 8-7, and used a 5-2 spurt to close out the opening set 25-23. Bailey led the Spartans with six kills during the opening set as the team hit .444.
Five different Bluejays tallied at least two kills during the first set, with Wilkinson leading the way with four.
Creighton gained a 7-6 lead in the second set on a kill from
Jaali Winters, but Michigan State used a 3-0 run to force the Bluejays to call timeout.
A solo block by Dimke between Wilkinson's fifth and sixth kills of the night gave the Bluejays their first 3-0 run of the second set to take a 15-13 edge and force Michigan State to call timeout. Creighton used an 8-1 run which included five kills from Wilkinson, to take a 20-14 lead. A kill by Winters into the back right corner of the court gave Creighton a 25-19 victory during the second set to even the overall match at 1-1.
The Bluejays hit .432 during set the second set as Wilkinson recorded five kills, Winters and
Taryn Kloth each had four, and
Megan Ballenger finished with three on three swings.
Michigan State jumped out to a 4-1 lead during the third set in an attempt to regain control of the match before the Bluejays gained a 6-5 edge after a long rally ended with an attack error for their first lead following the intermission.
Creighton held a 15-14 lead at the media timeout, but the Bluejays never led by more than one through the first half of the third frame as Michigan State continued to limit any of Creighton's opportunities to control momentum.
The Bluejays final lead of the third set occurred at 17-16 before the Spartans closed out the match on a 9-3 run, capped by a kill by Toliver.
The third set featured 14 ties and nine lead changes as Michigan State hit .308, while Creighton claimed a .250 hitting percentage.
The Spartans gave up the first point of the fourth set before recording the next five, forcing Creighton to take an early timeout. Michigan State reached double-digits and took an 11-3 lead behind six kills on 12 swings. After calling their second timeout of the set, the Bluejays went on a 3-0 run behind the serving of Winters for a short spurt of momentum before the Spartans controlled the remainder of the match.
Michigan State duplicated their eight-point lead after a kill by Rachel Minarick made it 18-10, her third kill of the match gave Michigan State its first nine-point lead, 21-12, and the senior setter's service ace ended the match at 25-16.
Michigan State advanced to the Sweet 16 next weekend, the Spartans first appearance in the third round of the NCAA's since 2013.
In addition to Wilkinson's 13 kills, Winters had 11 kills and Kloth recorded 10 putaways on .391 hitting.
Brittany Witt led the defense with 12 digs and
Naomi Hickman matched Wilkinson with three blocks. Creighton hit .290 and finished with 51 kills, three aces, 56 digs and eight blocks.
Michigan State hit .325 on the evening and recorded 67 kills, five aces, 63 digs and seven blocks. Jamye Cox finished with 23 digs, including 11 in the first set.
Creighton recorded 107 wins over the past four seasons, a program record for a senior class. The Bluejays also claimed more than 20 victories and reached the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season, and have won four straight BIG EAST regular-season and tournament titles.