DES MOINES, IOWA ? The victory was there for the Bulldogs' taking in its Missouri Valley Conference volleyball opener on Tuesday (Sept. 11), but it proved to be Creighton that executed when it mattered most as two service aces sealed the deal on a 3-2 (30-23, 26-30, 30-20, 20-30, 17-15) victory over Drake in the Knapp Center.

The conference lidlifter proved to be a barnburner as the two sides exchanged victories in the first four games to force a deciding game five.

Drake appeared in control in the fateful stanza as the Blue and White raced out to a 9-6 advantage. The Bluejays responded to the adversity by netting seven of the next nine points to regain the lead, 13-11.

The Bulldogs followed suite with three unanswered tallies of their own off of two Creighton errors and a kill by senior Samantha Nelson (Ceresco, Neb./Raymond Central) to hold a 14-13 advantage.

Standing one point away from defeat, the Bluejays parlayed a kill from Kelly Goc and two service aces into victory.

“The pressure was on the line and that is where we as a young team have a tendency to make young mistakes,” Drake head coach Amy Farber Knowles said. “Samantha (Nelson) did a great job as senior captain this evening, we had moments of greatness and then moments of youth. We made some adjustments, which helped us be successful, and we went away from them at times and I had to call a timeout to get them refocused. We need to learn how to maintain our focus for an entire match.”

Drake fell short of opening league play with a victory for the first time since 2002 as the Bulldogs dropped to 2-6 overall and 0-1 in MVC action. Creighton earned the win and now stands at 5-4 on the campaign, including 1-0 in conference play.

Registering her first career double-double on her birthday was freshman Angela Bys (Marion, Iowa/Marion) with an 18-kill, 11-dig performance. She shared top-match honors in kills with Nelson.

Sophomore Chelsea Lauersdorf (Watertown, Wis./Watertown) collected her second straight double-double with a 44-assist, 11-dig effort, while fellow sophomore Emily Madden (Van Meter, Iowa/Adel DeSoto Minburn) added a double-double of her own with 12 kills and 11 digs.

Freshman Alana Wittenburg (Readlyn, Iowa/Wapsie Valley) paced Drake with a team-high 17 digs.

Directing the Creighton attack was Allie Oelke, who fashioned a 17-kill, 13-dig performance. Bianca Rivera was nearly unstoppable on the defensive end for the Bluejays finishing with 38 digs.

Drake concluded the affair connecting on the attack at a .141 clip, while limiting Creighton to a .122 hitting percentage.

Statistically, the match proved to be nearly as close as the final scores indicated with the Bluejays bettering the Bulldogs in kills (63-59), assists (60-51), digs (82-73) and blocks (10.0-9.0). The number that ultimately did in Drake was services aces, which were won by Creighton (8-3), including 4-0 in the fifth game.

The Bulldogs return to action on Friday (Sept. 14) as the Blue and White tangle with Northwestern and Saint Louis at the Wildcat Classic in Evanston, Ill. Match times are 12:30 and 5:00 p.m., respectively.