Creighton Volleyball Wins First Round NCAA Match vs South Dakota

OMAHA, Neb. -- Second-seeded and sixth-ranked Creighton Volleyball tied a school-record with its 23rd straight victory in a 3-0 win over South Dakota on Thursday night in First Round action of the NCAA Tournament inside D.J. Sokol Arena. Scores of Kirsten Bernthal Booth's 500th win on the Creighton sideline were 25-10, 25-17, 25-14.

Creighton never trailed in the opening set, racing to leads of 9-1 and 20-6 before cruising to a 25-10 victory that was its largest winning margin in an NCAA Tournament set in program history. Ava Martin had six kills in seven swings, leading a Bluejay attack that had 20 kills and hit .486. Four Creighton women had four kills or more, while the entire USD line-up collected three kills in the lid-lifter. Maddy Bilinovic paced the CU defense with eight digs.

The Coyotes battled to win the first three points of the second set and didn't surrender the lead until Alivia Hausmann's four-point run at the service stripe put the hosts ahead 11-8. Six women provided multiple kills in the second frame as CU hit .293 and closed out a 25-17 win on Kendra Wait's seventh kill of the day. The Coyotes were limited to .000 hitting for a second straight set.

Creighton removed any hopes of a Coyote comeback after the break, scoring the first five points of the third set as Martin served her 51st ace of the fall to move into second in CU single-season history. The Jays did not trail at any point in the third set but did have to hold off a late 6-0 run by the Summit League champs before closing it out.

Martin had 13 kills and hit .385 while Sis contributed 11 kills on .308 hitting. Kendra Wait finished with 35 assists, seven digs and tied her career-high with nine blocks. The Bluejays had 52 kills, 46 digs, six blocks and four aces, and its .414 hitting percentage was its best mark ever in an NCAA Tournament contest.

South Dakota was paced by nine kills from Kylen Sealock, while the rest of her team had eight more. The Coyotes had 17 kills, three aces, 31 digs and six blocks on .024 hitting.

Creighton advances to Friday's 7 p.m. Central match against Ole Miss (18-11), which defeated seventh-seeded and 21st-ranked Florida State 3-2 (20-25, 25-16, 23-25, 27-25, 15-13) in a match featuring 35 ties and 17 lead changes that was the first match of the afternoon.

NOTES: Creighton is one of seven schools nationally to have appeared in each of the last seven NCAA Tournaments (BYU, Creighton, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, Penn State and Texas) ... Norah Sis moved past Leah Ratzlaff (1,622) for second in program history in career kills late in the first set ... Ava Martin had her 15th straight match with 10 or more kills, tied for the fifth-longest streak in program history ... Creighton's 30 wins are second-most in single-season program history, trailing only the 31 achieved by the 2021 squad ... Creighton earned its 31st consecutive home win and is now 18-0 at home this season. Both are program records ... Creighton's 23 straight wins are the nation's longest active streak ... Creighton has won 43 matches in a row against unranked teams and 44 straight over all opponents when winning the first set ... Creighton is now 15-13 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, including an 11-3 First Round record and a 6-4 mark in home contests ... Creighton is now 7-2 all-time against USD ... Kendra Wait played in her 117th victory, the most of any player in program history.