DePaul volleyball’s winless weekend pushes losing streak to five games

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DePaul volleyball’s (5-18, 3-9 Big East) losing streak stretched to five games this weekend after being swept in both of their home games against the Providence Friars (8-15, 2-10 Big East) and Creighton Blue Jays (20-4, 12-0 Big East).

Providence visited McGrath-Phillips Arena on Friday night and while DePaul kept it close in all three sets of the match, they ultimately fell 20-25, 24-26, 23-25. This was the first road victory for Providence of the season and their first win overall dating back to Sept. 23 when they defeated DePaul 3-2 on their home floor in Rhode Island.

Notably, Providence was able to squeeze its way past DePaul by maintaining the edge in total team assists, 44-40, and winning the match in total team blocks by a margin of five-to-four. Providence’s .291 hitting percentage was also significantly higher than DePaul’s hitting percentage of just .205, helping Providence seal the deal.

Similarly, DePaul proved to be no match for Creighton on Saturday as the Blue Jays spoiled the home crowd’s pink-out night. Creighton, the top-ranked team in the conference, extended their winning streak to 12 games by cruising past DePaul 25-15, 25-13, 25-19.

DePaul players and coaches were not made available for interviews following the game.

Creighton outplayed DePaul in just about every category on the court. Creighton dominated DePaul in kills 46- 28 and a huge part of that was due to Creighton’s .379 hitting percentage compared to just .103 for DePaul. During the second set, DePaul’s hitting percentage was .107, as Creighton’s tall and overwhelming front line proved to be too much for DePaul to overcome. Furthermore, Creighton spread the floor at a more rapid pace than DePaul. By doing so, Creighton wound up with 42 assists in perspective to DePaul’s 28 assists on the evening.

Both Taryn Kloth and Naomi Hickman stood at a towering six-foot-four inches apiece for Creighton, while Jaali Winters and Annika Welty stood at six-foot-three-inches tall. Kloth had a game-high 16 points and 14 kills, and Welty’s hitting percentage was a perfect .1000. Comparably, sophomore Emma Price and freshman Donna Brown were the tallest active players on DePaul’s side of the net at six-foot-two-inches each.

Price played well for DePaul and for most of the night seemed to be DePaul’s sole sign of hope. Price had a team-high .385 hitting percentage, seven kills and seven points. Junior Katie Dolan led DePaul with 16 assists.

Avarie Evans-Allen, a six-foot sophomore from Toronto who missed some action at the beginning of this year’s campaign for DePaul, also had a strong weekend. Leading DePaul with a .571 hitting percentage against Providence, Evans-Allen also played well against Creighton posted a team-high three blocks while also putting up six-and-a-half points and garnering five kills.

DePaul’s next four games will be played on the road. On Nov. 2-3 DePaul will head out to the east coast to first take on Georgetown (13-11, 6-6 Big East) before facing Villanova, whose overall and conference record is identical to Georgetown’s. They close out the road portion of their schedule on, Nov. 9 and Nov. 11, where they will square off against Xavier and the Butler Bulldogs.

The Blue Demons  return to Chicago to play in their final two home games on Nov. 16-17 when St. John’s (20-8, 9-4 Big East) and Seton Hall (8-18, 3-10 Big East) come to town.