#15 Texas A&M Downs #20 Creighton, 3-1

OMAHA, Neb. -- No. 15 Texas A&M saved a set point in the second game to take a 2-0 lead into intermission and defeated No. 20 Creighton Volleyball in four sets on Sunday, Sept. 20, inside a sold out D.J. Sokol Arena. The defending national champion, Texas A&M won the match by scores of 25-17, 26-24, 23-25, 25-15 to improve to 6-5 on the season.

Creighton lost its fifth match in a row and is 5-7.

Ayden Ames played on the outside for the first time at the collegiate level and led Creighton with 13 kills on a career-high 40 swings. Trinity Shadd-Ceres had 12 kills and Katie Dalton dished 32 assists and had four kills, four digs and four blocks. Nora Wurtz had her best match as a middle blocker this season, contributing six digs, five blocks and four kills. Creighton hit .122 and had 42 kills, 44 digs, 10 blocks and two aces.

Final Four Most Outstanding Player Kyndal Stowers led all players with 21 kills and three aces while also contributing 15 digs for the Aggies. Natalie Ring had 12 kills and Kaia Castle owned 10 kills on .467 hitting. Texas A&M had 58 kills, 56 digs, 9.5 blocks and four aces on .218 hitting.

Texas A&M hit .375 in the opening set and held the Bluejays to five kills to win the first set 25-17. The Aggies expanded their 10-9 lead with a 4-0 service run from Gabi Rodriguez and were able to withstand seven serving miscues in the opening frame. 

Creighton controlled most of the second set and were ahead 22-18 before surrendering a 4-0 run that saw Texas A&M even the score. Ames put down a kill to give CU a 24-23 lead on a play that saw Texas A&M middle blocker Eliza Sharp leave the match due to injury. Out of the break, CU committed a service error, then saw the Aggies get kills by Castle and Stowers to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.  Ames and Shadd-Ceres both had five kills in the second set for CU, but Stowers had six of Texas A&M's 13 kills to pace the visitors.

Creighton learned from its second set finish in the third game. After Texas A&M scored four straight points to take a 21-19 lead late, CU countered with three of the next four points to go up 23-22. With the score knotted at 23-all, Texas A&M had a service error followed by an attack error as Creighton won the set 25-23. Creighton hit .276 and held the Aggies to -.026 in the set, which was just enough to overcome CU's four service errors and four aces by the Aggies. 

Creighton led 8-5 in the fourth set before Texas A&M unleashed a 10-2 run heading into the technical timeout. CU scored the first two points after the break but the Aggies used a 7-0 serving run by Rodriguez to pull away for the 25-15 triumph.  Kirra Musgrove had 13 of her match-high 44 assists in the fourth set as the Aggies hit .500.

Creighton opens BIG EAST play on Friday at Seton Hall at 4 p.m. Central.