Creighton Volleyball Stuns Gophers, Advances to Regional Finals After 7-Year Drought

The women’s team of Creighton Volleyball squared off against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in their second NCAA postseason match. While both the teams entered the second round after clean-sweeping victories, the Golden Gophers failed to overpower the Creighton Bluejays on 2 December.

Creighton Volleyball is a powerhouse team that was cruising on a 16-match winning streak. Minnesota had survived the competition after squeezing into the playoffs. But, Creighton halted its journey and knocked it out via a clean sweep to clear its seven-year- regional final drought.

Creighton Volleyball advances with 17th consecutive win

Creighton Volleyball proudly declared the triumph of its women’s team as they won their 17th consecutive match via a tweet. The tweet carried the caption, “HOW SWEET IT IS!!!” The Minnesota Golden Gophers tried their best to win the game against the Creighton Bluejays. However, they failed to make a breakthrough in all three sets of the NCAA playoffs match. Creighton Volleyball won the first two sets with the scores of 25-21 and 25-20. The final set effort of Minnesota in the NCAA postseason matchup saw them leading the charge instead of chasing behind Creighton. 

Minnesota saw Creighton equal the score multiple times, but it didn’t lose morale. In fact, the final set saw Minnesota and Creighton Volleyball playing the perfect tango right from the 15th point, which ultimately resulted in a deuce. The Creighton Bluejays sweated hard to break the deuce that seemed to last for an eternity. 

After a grueling length of time, Creighton Volleyball put Minnesota down with 29-27 to enter its first NCAA regional finals since 2016. While Minnesota played almost all its cards right, it majorly lagged in terms of kills. Even their final set effort yielded 14 kills while Creighton scored 23.

Minnesota loses a kill-or-be-killed match

The Minnesota Golden Gophers kept the scoreboard ticking. While Minnesota did a phenomenal job on the defensive end and scored 11 points off blocks, this achievement got nullified due to a lackluster offense. Despite performing in an NCAA playoff match, the Golden Gophers could only manage 36 kills throughout the game. Compared to this, Creighton Volleyball posted 56 kills and won the match. 

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Moreover, while Minnesota’s top two kill scorers posted 12 and 11 kills, their third-best scorer posted only 5 kills. On the other hand, top scorers from the Bluejays posted 16, 15, and 12 kills. Because of this, Minnesota ended up losing a kill-or-be-killed match. While Creighton Volleyball will now enter its first regional finals in seven years, will they go on and win the NCAA Championship as well?

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