PEORIA, Ill. — Creighton never trailed in the first two sets, and pulled away from a 13-13 tie in the third to down Bradley University 25-15, 25-13, 25-18 in the Bluejays’ regular-season finale.
Creighton finished with a season-low six attack errors to tie for fourth place in the Missouri Valley Conference at 10-8. The Jays improved to 13-16 overall.
CU will open the Valley tournament against Drake in the quarterfinals Thursday at 8 p.m. in Sokol Arena.
“I was pleased with how we played tonight, especially going into a huge match on Thursday against Drake, so that’s good as far as momentum,” Jays coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “The big thing for tonight was that we didn’t make mistakes even though we beat them handily.
“Early in the year, this team gave teams a lot of points through unforced errors, and we’re starting to clean those up and that was apparent tonight.”
Allie Oelke and Jessica Houts each led CU with nine kills, while Alicia Runge continued her strong play of late with eight kills. Oelke also paced the Jays defensively with 16 digs while Sarah Schulze (11) and Nayka Benitez (10) reached double digits as well.
Megan Bober, a freshman from Elmwood-Murdock, directed the offense and finished with 33 set assists. Heather Thorson, a freshman from Mead, Neb., came off the bench to record four blocks to lead CU’s front line.
The Bluejays had 43 kills and just six errors in 106 swings, hitting .349. The Jays also had four aces, 58 digs and nine blocks.
Bradley was led by 11 kills from Amy Reichel, who hit .308. But overall, the Jays held the Braves to .106 hitting. Bradley also failed to record a block in the match as the Braves dropped to 9-23 overall and 0-18 in the Valley.
Creighton (13-16, 10-8).................25 25 25
At Bradley (9-23, 0-18).......................15 13 18
CU (kills-aces-blocks): Sanford 2-0-1, Oelke 9-1-3, Bober 3-0-3, Houts 9-0-1, Boggs 0-2-0, Schulze 7-0-1, Benitez 0-1-0, Thorson 3-0-4, Templeton 1-0-0, Runge 8-0-2, Almgren 1-0-0. Totals 43-4-15.
BU: Senkpiel 0-1-0, Comiskey 2-0-0, Schmidt 6-1-0, Lesan 1-0-0, Reichel 11-0-0, Ervin 5-0-0, Collins 1-0-0, Staib 2-0-0. Totals 28-2-0.
Set assists: CU 40 (Oelke 1, Bober 33, Houts 1, Schulze 2, Benitez 3), BU 27 (Schmidt 2, Lesan 25).
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