Rice Wins Marathon Second Set; Upsets #15 Creighton Volleyball

HOUSTON, Texas -- No. 15 Creighton Volleyball closed its weekend in Houston with a 3-1 loss at Rice in the final match of the Rice Invitational on Sunday. Scores of the contest in Rice's favor were 25-21, 37-35, 18-25, 27-25. The Owls saved a combined 11 set points in sets two and four to earn its first Top 25 victory since defeating USC in 2023.

Ayden Ames had career-highs with 15 kills and eight blocks and was one of four Bluejays to finish with 10 or more kills. She was joined in double-figures by Abbey Hayes (14), Trinity Shadd-Ceres (12) and Eloise Brandewie (11). Saige Damrow added 23 digs for Creighton (5-4).

Sydnee Peterson (20 kills, 11 digs) and Ashlyn Seay (14 kills, 13 digs) led Rice (6-3).

Rice hit .350 to win the first set, 25-21. The Jays fought back from an early hole to tie the score at 17-all before Rice went on a 3-0 run to pull away. Seay had five kills on .455 hitting for the Owls, while Shadd-Ceres had five kills in 10 errorless swings for CU. The Jays hit .343 and Damrow had six of CU's 13 digs.

The second set took 48 minutes to complete before Rice emerged with a 37-35 victory in the second-highest scoring set in Creighton history. CU had 22 kills and 31 digs in the frame, but Rice had 23 kills and 42 digs in the set which featured 24 ties and eight lead changes. CU had nine set point chances and saved three others before Rice ultimately prevailed on Peterso's eighth and ninth kills of the set. Hayes had seven kills and Ames six more in the frame, while Damrow (8) led seven different Bluejays with three or more digs. Libero Mari Furoyama owned a dozen digs for the Owls.

Crieghton had seven blocks in the third set to take a 25-18 decision as Rice hit -.028 in 36 swings. Ames had five rejections and Hayes added three stuffs for a resurgent Bluejay front line, which finished with 15 blocks for its fourth straight match in double-figures.

Creighton jumped out to leads of 20-11 and 23-16 in the fourth set before a big Rice rally closed out the match. Rice used 7-0 run to tie the score at 23-all and saved two more set points by the Bluejays before Peterson's 20th and final kill eventually ended the marathon match. Six Bluejays had multiple kills in the fourth game, led by four by Ames.

Creighton finished with 64 kills, 74 digs, 16 blocks and four aces on .212 hitting compared to the Owls, who had 65 kills, 88 digs, eight blocks and three aces on .198 hitting.

Creighton is back in action on Wednesday at 6 p.m. when it visits top-ranked Nebraska (7-0) in a match that will be televised on BTN.