Volleyball: Coach confident in team

It's not that Kirsten Bernthal Booth expected her rebuilding volleyball team to avoid all struggles. It's when and how the squad has struggled that's been most frustrating for the Creighton coach.

After opening with a sweep over Texas Tech, the Bluejays have lost five straight matches. They'll try to bump up their win total this weekend, when they play three matches in Ohio at Dayton's Flyer Invitational.

The 1-5 start is the program's worst since 2002, when CU opened 0-9. And the five-match losing string equals the school's longest slump since Booth took over in 2003.

While the bottom line isn't pretty, Booth is certain the Bluejays haven't played as poorly as their record might suggest.

While dropping three matches at Kansas' tournament last weekend, the Bluejays were beaten by just two points in five of the nine sets they lost. Against Kansas, they wasted a 24-21 lead in the opening set and gave the Jayhawks 13 total points on serving errors.

Creighton lost to Lipscomb despite breaking a program record with 38 block assists. Against Florida International, CU hit .257 and still lost. How rare was that? The Bluejays had won their previous 60 matches when hitting .250 or better.

Booth believes Creighton easily could be 4-2. The coach said she has seen stretches of great volleyball from her club, but it hasn't happened during the most crucial moments of each match.

“I still think we are a pretty good team, but we've just been giving away far too many points on errors,” Booth said. “I know we'll get victories once we're able to put everything together. We're just kind of waiting for that light bulb to come on.”

Creighton will play this weekend against Samford, Connecticut and Dayton. The Flyers, who are just outside the Top 25, enter their tournament at 6-0, including a victory over then-No. 19 Purdue.

Contact the writer:

444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com