Creighton Volleyball Ends Season With Elite Eight Loss

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Creighton Volleyball's first Final Four appearance will have to wait, as the No. 11 Bluejays fell in three sets at the Regional Final for a second straight season at No. 2 Kentucky on Saturday evening in Lexington, Ky.  Scores of the match in favor of UK were 25-19, 25-13, 25-18.

With its 26th consecutive win, Kentucky (29-2) will play the winner of tomorrow evening's winner between No. 3 Texas and No. 10 Wisconsin in Austin, Texas. That national semifinal will take place on Thursday night in Kansas City, Mo. Creighton ends Brian Rosen's first season at the helm with a 28-6 record after tasting defeat for the first time since Sept. 16

Creighton and Kentucky were tied at 14-all in the first set before Kentucky pulled away with a 5-0 run and ended up taking a 25-19 decision. UK All-Americans Brooklyn DeLeye and Eva Hudson both had six kills as UK had 17 kills to CU's nine. Nora Wurtz had three aces in the frame, setting CU's single-season school record of 59 set by Molly Moran in 2000.

The second set was all UK, as the hosts raced to leads of 7-1 and 12-4 and never trailed in a 25-13 victory to move in front 2-0. DeLeye had seven kills and the Wildcats hit .289 while holding CU to .000 hitting in 43 swings.

The third set featured seven ties and three lead changes before UK closed out the sweep with a 25-18 win.

DeLeye paced the Wildcats with 18 kills and added 12 digs, while Hudson had a double-double with 13 kills and 15 digs. The Wildcats had 47 kills, 62 digs, eight blcoks and two aces on .263 hitting.

Martin and Johnson led Creighton with eight kills and Annalea Maeder had her fourth straight double-double with 26 assists and 13 digs. Creighton hit .066 and had 29 kills, 47 digs, nine blocks and three aces.

The match marked the final contest for Bluejay seniors Ava Martin, Kiara Reinhardt, Annalea Maeder and Sky McCune.

NOTES: Creighton's Ava Martin and Sydney Breissinger were named to the Lexington Regional All-Tournament Team ... Creighton had its 23-match win streak snapped, which was tied for the second-longest in program history ... Kentucky has won 22 straight matches at home ... Creighton's nine-match win streak in true road matches was snapped, which tied a school-record ... Creighton fell to 0-14 all-time against teams ranked first or second ... Creighton is now 20-15 all-time in 15 NCAA Tournament appearances ... Creighton had been trying to become the first school without football to make the Volleyball Final Four since Santa Clara in 2005 ... Five of Creighton's losses this season came to teams ranked in the top-five at the time of the match (#1 Nebraska, #2 Penn State, #2 Kentucky, #4 Louisville, #5 Texas). ... Ava Martin tied Jaali Winters (595.5 in 2015) for most points in a single-season in Creighton history ... Each of Creighton's last 27 matches have been won by the team to win the first set.

Below is the NCAA VB Lexington Regional All-Tournament Team as voted by media present at the event. 
Brooklyn DeLeye – Kentucky* (*Most Outstanding Player)
Ava Martin – Creighton 
Sydney Breissinger – Creighton 
Molly Tuozzo – Kentucky
Lizzie Carr – Kentucky
Eva Hudson – Kentucky 
Noemie Glover – Arizona State