Creighton Volleyball Shows Balance in Road Win at Villanova
VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Nora Wurtz and Ayden Ames both had 11 kills without an error as the Creighton Volleyball team posted its 11th straight win over Villanova on Friday night with a 3-1 triumph inside Jake Nevin Field House. Scores of the Bluejay win were 25-23, 25-23, 24-26, 25-16.
Creighton improved to 11-8 on the season and into a two-way tie for first place of the BIG EAST with a 6-1 league mark. The Bluejays also tied a season-high with their third straight victory of the fall. Villanova, picked to finish second behind the Jays in the preseason BIG EAST Coaches Poll, fell to 10-9 and is 3-5 in conference play.
The Bluejays started slow, falling behind 8-4 before tying the match at 8-all. Nova answered to move in front 13-9, only to see the Jays counter with a 5-1 run of their own to knot the score at 14 a piece. Creighton broke free from a 23-all tie with a kill by Ashlyn Paymal and won the set when Paymal and Eloise Brandewie blocked Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year Abby Harrell on set point. The teams played through 10 ties throughout the set, with CU's Abbey Hayes leading all players with six kills.
Crieghton hit .344 in the second set to take a 2-0 lead in the match. The Jays owned a comfortable lead of 3-5 points for most of the set and were ahead 24-20 before Villanova scored three in a row to prolong the set. Coming out of a timeout, CU turned to Ayden Ames for the set point clincher. Wurtz had five kills in the second frame to lead the Bluejay attack, while Katie Dalton had her second straight set with a dozen assists.
The third set also went down to the wire. The score was deadlocked at 23-all before a service error from Villanova standout Campbell McKinnon. The Jays couldn't convert a match point opportunity with a service error of their own after a Nova timeout to tie it at 24-all. Harrell gave the Wildcats a set point and its first lead of the set since 5-4. After a Bluejay timeout, the Wildcats extended the match when a CU attack went wide.
Creighton got off to its best start of the night in the fourth set, scoring the first five points on Wurtz's serve. She had an ace, combined with two kills from Ashlyn Paymal, another winner by Brandewie and a VU attack error. CU never trailed in the set, racing to a 21-12 lead en route to posting its 26th straight BIG EAST road win.
Villanova was led by Harrell, who had 18 kills in her first front row action since October 2nd. McKinnon contributed 14 kills and nine digs and setter Alyssa Nelson had a double-double with 48 assists and 11 digs.
Wurtz had a career-high 11 kills and hit .733 and Ames collected 11 kills on .258 hitting. Hayes also had 11 kills to go along with eight digs, while Brandewie posted 10 kills and a match-leading five blocks. Katie Dalton tallied 46 assists and added nine digs.
Creighton led Villanova in kills (56-55), aces (8-5), blocks (7-3) and hitting percentage (.373 to .242), while Nova owned a 47-41 dig edge.
Creighton is back in action on Saturday at 5 p.m. Central with a road match at Georgetown. The contest can be seen on ESPN+.