#5 Louisville Edges #15 Creighton Volleyball in Top 15 Battle
HOUSTON, Texas -- No. 5 Louisville defeated No. 15 Creighton Volleyball in four sets on Saturday afternoon at the Rice Invitational in Houston, Texas. Scores of the Cardinal victory were 25-22, 27-25, 23-25, 25-16.
Kalyssa Blackshear had six kills on .545 hitting to lead Louisville (7-1) to a 25-22 win in the opening set. CU fell behind 12-5 early and used a late run to stave off four set points before ultimately falling. Eloise Brandewie had a hand in three of CU's four blocks.
Louisville survived a pair of Bluejay set point opportunities to win a 27-25 battle in the second set, which featured 15 ties. CU led 23-21, 24-23 and 25-24, but the Cardinals scored the final three points. Trinity Shadd-Ceres had six kills and eight digs in the second set and Ayden Ames owned five kills in the second set, but it wasn't enough to overcome eight kills by Chloe Chicoine and 17 assists by Nayelis Cabello.
Creighton (5-3) never trailed in the third set, racing to a 10-3 lead behind a 4-0 serving run from Omaha native Ivy Leuck. The Cardinal drew within two at 12-10, forcing Brian Rosen to use a timeout, but the Jays regrouped with four of the next six points and held off the Cardinals down the stretch. Saige Damrow owned nine digs in the fourth set as the Jays held a potent Louisville offense to .133 hitting.
CU fell behind 6-2 in the fourth set, leading to an early timeout by Rosen. The Bluejays found their footing with the next four points to tie the score, only to see Louisville counter with a 4-0 run to reclaim the momentum for good. Chicoine had seven kills in the final frame to offset a balanced Bluejay attack that saw Abbey Hayes, Ames and Brandewie each own three kills.
Shadd-Ceres led Creighton with her third double-double of the fall, owning 17 kills and 14 digs. She also reached 100 kills in just her eighth match at Creighton, tying a program record also done by JoDe Cieloha in 1994. Ames had 11 kills with five blocks and hit .550, while Damrow notched 25 digs, becoming the first Bluejay in four seasons to post three straight matches of 20 or more digs. The Bluejays had 50 kills, 72 digs, 11 blocks and four aces while hitting .169.
Louisville was paced by Chicoine (21 kills, 13 digs) and Kalyssa Blackshear (18 kills, .486%). Cabello also had a double-double with 52 assists and 12 digs. The Cardinals had 64 kills, 69 digs, 10 blocks and five aces on .256 hitting to snap a six-match streak of .300 hitting or better.
Creighton closes out play at the Rice Invitational on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. with a match against the host Owls that will be streamed on ESPN+. Rice was the unanimous pick to win the American Conference poll, just ahead of a Tulsa team that Creighton played five sets against last Sunday.