#6 Volleyball meets #2 Penn State for Final Four spot

On December 16, 2024By Littum

By: Rob Anderson

• A trip to the Final Four is at stake Sunday night when sixth-ranked Creighton (32-2) visits second-ranked Penn State (32-2) at 7:30 p.m. Central inside the Rec Hall in University Park, Pa.
The Final Four kicks off on Thursday in Louisville, Ky., inside the KFC Yum! Center.

• ESPN will televise the game, with Paul Sunderland, Missy Whittemore and Shelby Coppedge on the call. The match will also be streamed on http://watchespn.com.

• Creighton is seeking its first Final Four trip in volleyball as it lost its only previous regional final game in 2016 at Texas (3-0).
Creighton has previously been among the last four teams to play in baseball once (1991) and men’s soccer six times (1996, 2000, 2002, 2011, 2012, 2022).

• Creighton is the only school in the nation to reach the Elite Eight in women’s volleyball (2024), women’s basketball (2021), men’s basketball (2022) and men’s soccer (2022) since the start of the 2021 academic year- 22.

• This is the 38th consecutive academic year in which at least one Creighton team has made the NCAA Tournament.

• With a win on Sunday, Creighton will be the first non-football school to reach the Volleyball Final Four since Santa Clara in 2005.
No non-football team has reached the NCAA Volleyball final since Long Beach State in 2001. The last non-football team to win the volleyball title was Long Beach State in 1998.
Creighton is the only team remaining in the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Tournament that does not sponsor a football program.

• Friday’s win improved Creighton to 17-13 all-time in 14 NCAA tournament appearances, including a 2-2 mark in the regional semifinal round. All those matches have taken place under the management of Kirsten Bernthal Booth.
When Booth was hired in 2003, Creighton was coming off a 3-23 slump and had never won more than 16 games in any season since the 1994 reinstatement.

• Creighton outrebounded Texas 11-2 and also held an 8-3 advantage in service aces Friday.
The 11 blocks by Creighton were tied for fourth-most against Texas this season, and the eight aces were tied for second-most allowed by the Longhorns this fall.
The two blocks by UT were a season low.

• Creighton is the only volleyball program in BIG EAST history to ever reach the Elite Eight, and has now done so twice (2016 and 2024).

• Creighton Volleyball has now won 25 straight games, the longest active streak in the country, and two more than the previous school record set in the 2016 team’s regional final loss.

• Sunday’s regional final places Kirsten Bernthal Booth against Katie Schumacher-Cawley.
Besides those two, the only remaining female head coach (after the regional semifinal) is Louisville’s Dani Busboom-Kelly.
No female coach has ever led her team to the NCAA Women’s Volleyball title.

• Friday’s win was Creighton’s 32nd triumph of the season and broke a school record set in 2021.
The 32 wins are tied for the national lead with Pittsburgh, Penn State and Nebraska.
That’s the most wins by any BIG EAST program since St. John’s finished 33-4 in 2007. The league record was set by a 35-10 Syracuse team in 1990.

• Creighton has won 100 sets this fall, a number that leads the nation through the end of the regional semifinal round (Pittsburgh entered Saturday with 98).
In addition, Creighton’s 12 set losses are tied for the fewest in the nation participating in the regional finals (Pitt also participated Saturday with 12).

• Creighton owns 119 wins since the start of 2021, which trails only Pittsburgh’s 122 wins (as of Saturday) nationally in that span.

• Creighton enters Sunday on a nine-game winning streak in true road games, tied for the longest streak in team history.
Penn State enters Sunday riding a 23-game home winning streak, the nation’s fourth-longest active streak. Before Saturday, only Nebraska (44), Pittsburgh (34) and Creighton (33) owned longer active home hitting streaks.

• Creighton is the only school in the nation to win 25 games or more in every season since 2014 (not counting the 2020 Covid-19 year, when it played just 16 times).

• Creighton’s four Top 25 wins this year tie a program record (also 2018 and 2019) for a single season, with a chance to match that outright mark Sunday against No. 2 Penn State.

• Creighton is now 30-88 all-time against Top 25 opposition after Friday’s win, including a 4-2 mark in the fall.
CU is 10-42 all-time in true road games against Top 25 foes.

• Creighton is now 25-27 all-time against Top 25 competition when ranked, a mark that grows to 4-3 all-time when both teams are in the Top 10.

• Creighton owns 10 Top 10 wins in program history, all of which have occurred in the last 10 seasons. Nine of those top 10 wins have come on the road, including victories over No. 6 Purdue and no. 10 Kansas on back-to-back days in September in Lawrence, Kan.
Creighton owns four Top-Five wins in program history, all of which were away from home.
The highest-ranked team Creighton has ever beaten was No. 3 Washington (8/26/17) and no. 3 Kentucky (9/4/21), but the Jays are 0-1 all-time against the No. 2 teams and 0-6 all-time against no. 1 clubs entering Sunday’s matchup with the second-ranked Nittany Lions.

• Assistant coach Brian Rosen is happy to remind the Bluejays that they are the nation’s best third-string team in the country, and the numbers seem to back it up.
Creighton has outscored its last four Top 25 opponents 100-64 in third sets.
Creighton is 33-1 in third sets this season and is hitting .358 in third sets. Against Top 25 competition, CU is hitting .343 in the third set.
Creighton is also a perfect 8-0 in fourth sets this season.

• Creighton is 12-2 this season against teams that reached the NCAA Tournament, including eight straight.

Kendra Wait is averaging 11.27 assists, 3.08 digs, 1.08 kills and 0.82 blocks per set on .397 hitting in those games, and Creighton is hitting .293 as a team.

• Texas was the 101st different school that Kirsten Bernthal Booth has hit in his 22 years on the Creighton sideline. A win over Penn State would increase that number to 102 teams.

• Friday’s win helped Creighton improve to 49-0 in matches lasting either three or four sets since Oct. 7, 2023. Each of CU’s last three losses came in five sets.

• Creighton won Friday’s match against Texas despite dropping the first set, improving to 4-2 on the year after dropping the opener.
Creighton is now 428-36 (.922) under Kirsten Bernthal Booth when winning the first set and 74-155 (.323) when losing the first set.
In NCAA tournament play, Creighton is 12-4 when winning the first set and 5-9 when losing the first set.
Creighton has won 45 straight matches since winning the first set.

• Creighton and Penn State are two of the nation’s seven teams that have appeared in each of the last 13 NCAA Tournaments. That list also includes BYU, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska and Texas.

• Creighton and Penn State share six common opponents this year.
Penn State beat Louisville 3-0, while Louisville defeated Creighton 3-2.
Creighton swept St. John’s twice, while Penn State swept the Red Storm once.
Creighton beat Purdue in four sets, while Penn State swept the Boilermakers twice.
Creighton and Penn State both beat USC in four sets.
Creighton lost 3-2 at Nebraska, while Penn State beat the Cornhuskers in four sets on Nov. 29.
Creighton beat Marquette three times (3-1, 3-1, 3-0), while Penn State beat Marquette once (3-1).

• Creighton hit .307 against Texas on Friday and has now won 189 straight games hitting .300 or better.

• It’s been a busy stretch for Creighton, both on and off the field, this past week. About half of the team completed final exams before leaving Omaha on Wednesday, many more took a final on Thursday, and Sky McCune and Jaya Johnson took an Astronomy final Friday morning before the ET game at 1 p.m.
On Saturday Elise Goetzinger has a final while Emersen Strain will take a final after the team returns to Omaha on Monday.
Creighton had 17 women achieve a GPA of 3.50 or better for at least one semester in 2023-24 and has received a Team Academic Award from the AVCA in 17 of the last 21 seasons.

• Creighton libero Maddy Bilinovic leads Bluejays with 425 digs (3.75 dps.) but is no stranger to Rec Hall. She played for Penn State the previous four seasons before graduating and transferring to Creighton in January.

• Elise Goetzinger had seven kills and three blocks on .333 hitting Friday, beating Texas in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in her career.
Goetzinger is hitting .381 this season, which puts her on track to set Creighton single-season and career records in the category.
In her last five games, Goetzinger is hitting .493 with 42 kills.

• Jaya Johnson had nine kills in 12 swings on Friday. The redshirt freshman also had four blocks, three of which came against Madisen Skinner, including one on match point.
Johnson hit a season-high .667 as Creighton improved to 22-0 when hitting .300 or better.
In Creighton’s last three matches against top 25 foes, Johnson has 28 kills and six errors in 44 swings to hit an even .500 in 11 sets.
Johnson started his Friday by taking an astronomy final exam.

• Ava Martin served an ace Friday, giving her 54 this season. That’s five behind Molly Moran’s school record of 59 set in 2000. Martin’s 10 career NCAA Tournament aces is a program record.
Martin also owns five or more kills in each of her last 76 matches.
Martin’s 17 consecutive games with 10 or more kills is the fifth-longest streak in CU history, one shy of Jaela Zimmerman’s 18, which is currently fourth.

• Kiara Reinhardt tied a season-high with nine kills on Friday vs. no. 13 Texas, while her eight blocks gave her a BIG EAST-leading 162 on the fall.
Creighton is 52-3 in the past two seasons with Reinhardt starting.
Creighton also improved to 18-0 on the fall as Reinhardt hits .300 or better.

• Kendra Wait had 47 assists on Friday and now owns 4,934 in his career. That puts her 66 shy of 5,000 in her career, something only Korie Lebeda (5,281) has done in Bluejay history.

• Friday’s 47 assists and 17 digs marked the 20th double-double of the season for Kendra Waitand extended his program record with his 73rd in his illustrious career.
Wait owns a double-double in each of her last nine games against Top 25 opponents and 17-of-19 overall Top 25 contests in her career.
Wait now owns a double-double in 34 of the 40 career matches to go four sets or longer.

• Creighton has never had anyone named a first- or second-team All-American, but don’t be surprised if Kendra Wait (and several teammates) break through this year.
After a regular season in which Wait repeated at BIG EAST Player of the Year and BIG EAST Setter of the Year, all Wait has done is win BIG EAST Tournament MVP honors and then go wild in the NCAA Tournament.
In three NCAA Tourney contests, Wait has averaged 11.70 assists, 3.20 digs, 2.20 kills and 0.60 blocks per game. set while hitting .724.