Laura Doornbos had 14 kills and Savannah Knowles added 12 digs as Illinois State claimed its second straight Missouri Valley Conference road victory with a 30-16, 30-25, 30-22 victory Saturday over Creighton in the Omaha Civic Auditorium.
Illinois State out-hit the Jays .290 to .150 and beat them at the service line 6-3 in aces, with ISU totaling just six service errors to 17 for Creighton. Redbird coach Sharon Dingman thought the serving difference set the tone. ISU got a combined 13 kills from middles Emily Kabbes and Kari Staehlin, while Creighton star middle Ashley Williams, hampered by a leg injury, had just one kill for the match. Freshman Carolyn Decker led CU with 10 kills.
ISU led in digs 49-37 for the match, with Paige White adding 11 and Ashley Grubb 10.
I think our serving helped us tremendously and their serving didnt do what they had hoped, said Dingman. We wanted to keep their middles out of the game and our serving obviously helped in that. Obviously Ashley (Williams) was hurting and that hurt them, but I thought we were able to control things when we needed to.
The Jays, 8-2, 1-1, played before 852 fansthe second-largest home crowd in Creighton volleyball historybut got behind with 13 hitting errors in game one.
The Redbirds, 7-2, 2-0, ended Creightons winning streak at seven matches, longest in the 11-year history of the program. ISU took a 13-5 lead in game one thanks to seven early Creighton hitting errors. Six kills by Doornbos helped the Birds build a 21-9 lead and coast to victoryending a Bluejay string of 14 straight games won.
In game two, the Birds pulled away from a 9-9 tie on four straight Savannah Knowles service points, including an ace. Doornbos back-to-back kills led to an 18-12 Redbird lead, enough to build a 29-21 cushion and eventually score game point on a Knowles kill.
Creighton tried to ratchet-up its serving in game three, but seven early service errors allowed Doornbos and company to control the game and build a 23-13 edge.
The Redbirds open the home Valley schedule at Redbird Arena against Bradley (Friday) and Northern Iowa (Saturday) next weekend.
