Senior day was a blast, Sarah Schulze joked, but there really was no need to make it last any longer.

Much to the relief of everybody on Creighton’s side of the court, the Bluejays found a way to close out Evansville in four sets Saturday afternoon at Sokol Arena during their regular- season home finale. The Purple Aces made a strong push to extend the match to five, but the Creighton volleyball team dug deep and pulled out a key 25-19, 20-25, 25-15, 25-23 Missouri Valley victory.

“A lot of fifth games come down to which team has the momentum, and once you get into the fifth game, you know anything can happen,” Schulze said. “For us to pull out that fourth game was really important, and it was good that things didn’t get too interesting.”

With the win, Creighton avenged its five-set loss at Evansville earlier this season. The Bluejays (12-15, 9-7 Valley) also now can finish no worse than sixth in the league. That means — as conference tournament hosts at the end of the month — it’s guaranteed that CU won’t knock a higher placing team out of the postseason.

Allie Oelke had 15 kills and 18 digs for CU, while Alicia Runge put away 15 kills and led the Bluejays with her .400 hitting. And on a day to celebrate Schulze and Jessica Houts, the two seniors both had a big hand in the victory.

Houts turned in 13 kills and 12 blocks, while Schulze added seven kills, four blocks and 16 digs. A middle blocker from Bloomington, Minn., Houts was an honorable-mention All-America pick last season. Schulze, from Dixon, Ill., became the first outside hitter in program history to surpass 1,000 career digs during CU’s win Friday over Southern Illinois.

During a rebuilding season, coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said she couldn’t imagine having better senior leaders than Houts and Schulze.

“They both are just so selfless,” Booth said. “Whatever they can do for the team, they’re going to do. Our team the past four years has had incredible chemistry, and it’s all because of kids like Jess and Sarah.”

One night after playing through an illness, Creighton setter Megan Bober had 51 assists, five kills and five blocks while helping her team hit .230 against Evansville. Libero Nayka Benitez led the Bluejays with 24 digs.

Fourth-place Creighton, which has won six of its last eight Valley matches, closes out the regular season next weekend with road matches at No. 22 Northern Iowa and Bradley.

“We feel like we’ve really started to play better during the second half of the conference season,” Schulze said. “We know we play well at home, so we’re all just really excited about getting to host the Valley tournament.”

Evansville (13-16, 6-11).................19 25 15 23

Creighton (12-15, 9-7)....................25 20 25 25

Evansville (kills-aces-blocks): Sawin 6-1-1, Lubrecht 0-0-0, Wandersee 12-0-5, Gabruseva 3-0-2, Maher 9-2-3, Nixon 10-0-4, Knackmuhs 1-0-1, Sylvester 0-0-0, Rajcan 2-0-0, Wilson 4-0-0.

Creighton (kills-aces-blocks): Sanford 9-0-5, Greisch 0-0-0, Oelke 15-0-3, Bober 5-0-5, Houts 13-1-12, Schulze 7-0-4, Benitez 0-1-0, Runge 15-0-5, Boggs 0-0-0.

Set assists: Evansville 44 (Sawin 37); Creighton 61 (Bober 51). A: 607.

Contact the writer:

444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com

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