#12 Creighton Volleyball Extends Winning Streak

OMAHA, Neb. – The No. 12 Creighton Volleyball team extended its winning streak out to 13 straight matches with a 3-0 sweep of DePaul during the Bluejays Halloween Kids Day on Friday afternoon inside D.J. Sokol Arena. Scores of the match in favor of Creighton were 25-16, 25-18, 25-15.
 
The victory was Creighton's (18-5, 11-0 BIG EAST) 29th consecutive over DePaul (12-11, 5-7 BIG EAST) in addition to it being the Bluejays 42nd straight BIG EAST regular-season win. 
 
Ava Martin led CU with 12 kills, moving into fifth all-time with 1,430 career kills, while Annalea Maeder matched her career-high with five aces and dished out 29 assists while surpassing 1,000 career digs in the victory. Eloise Brandewie delivered seven kills and four blocks, while Kiara Reinhardt and Jaya Johnson each added six kills. Creighton finished the day with 40 kills, 10 aces, 33 digs and four blocks on .303 hitting. 
 
Isabela Tavares-Solomon paced DePaul with a match-high tying 12 kills while Abby Cahill added a match-high 11 digs. DePaul had 31 kills, 30 digs, two aces and seven blocks on .128 hitting. 
 
Five different Bluejays recorded multiple kills in the opening set, claiming a 25-16 victory. Martin had four of those terminations as CU hit .300 with 14 kills in 30 swings. DePaul took an early 7-6 lead in the frame before a 4-0 serving run from Maeder that featured kills from Martin and Reinhardt forced a DePaul timeout and put the Bluejays out in front for good.  The Jays owned a 18-13 lead before a 7-3 burst closed the set. 
 
Creighton never trailed in set two, blitzing out to a 7-2 lead on a pair of kills from Maeder and a service ace from Abbey Hayes. The Bluejays advantage grew to double digits at 22-12 on back-to-back kills from Johnson before a late run from the Blue Demons was fended off with a kill from Brandewie on set point to give CU a 2-0 lead at intermission. 

The Bluejays led wire-to-wire in the third set to close out their 12th consecutive home sweep in BIG EAST play. CU seized control early on as Maeder authored a 7-0 serving run which featured three straight aces to grab a 13-5 edge. Back-to-back kills from Martin and Brandewie pushed the Jays advantage out to 19-9, before a kill from Martin closed out the contest. Martin had six of her 12 kills in the last game, where CU served up six of their 10 aces. 
 
Creighton returns to the court on Saturday at 7 p.m. when its hosts Marquette on Nebraska Public Media. The Bluejays can clinch a top for seed and a spot in the BIG EAST Tournament with a win over the Golden Eagles on Saturday.