The night featured more drama than Kirsten Bernthal Booth would have cared to witness.

But this is exactly the type of match that the Creighton volleyball team might have lost last season, so Booth chalked it up as a step forward.

The Bluejays opened their season and their own tournament Friday night with a wild 25-19, 25-20, 24-26, 25-23 win over San Francisco. The crowd of 1,304 was the second largest at CU's 1-year-old Sokol Arena, and there was no shortage of topics fans could discuss on their way out of the building.

The match featured a bizarre 15-minute delay in the third set as officials rectified an error in San Francisco's rotation. Creighton let the Dons hang around by committing a whopping 21 service errors, with each miscue bringing louder groans from the stands.

The Bluejays and the crowd even began to celebrate a sweep after setter Megan Bober appeared to put away a decisive kill in set three. But Bober was whistled for carrying the ball, and San Francisco battled back to force a fourth set.

Plus, standout junior middle blocker Laurel Sanford left the match in set one with an apparent serious ankle sprain. Booth said the extent of Sanford's injury is unclear, though it's doubtful Sanford will dress for Creighton on Saturday. The Bluejays already are playing without senior middle Lauren Bloemke, who suffered a career-ending knee injury in July.

Losing Sanford — who ranked 25th in the NCAA last season with 1.30 blocks per set — would be a big blow for Creighton.

“I always tell the team that we have to be building up our arsenal,” Booth said. “I thought we added a lot to our arsenal tonight. Having to deal with Laurel going down, obviously she's a key cog for us. Then the huge pause, I never really thought we got our rhythm after that.”

Bober had eight kills, an ace, eight blocks and helped Creighton hit .256. Senior Alicia Runge had a career-high 18 kills on .312 hitting, and Allie Oelke finished with 12 kills and 12 digs for the Bluejays.

“We really didn't plan on dealing with so much adversity in our first match,” Bober said. “But we responded well. No matter what happens, everybody just has to stay focused on the next point.”

Creighton continues its Bluejay Invitational on Saturday with a noon match against Lispcomb and a 7:30 p.m. contest against Kansas. San Francisco takes on Kansas at 10 a.m. Saturday, while Lipscomb and San Francisco face off at 5:30 p.m.

Karina Garlington had 20 kills on Friday as Kansas opened Creighton's tournament with a 32-30, 25-27, 25-22, 25-16 win over Lipscomb.

San Francisco (0-1)..................19 20 26 23
Creighton (1-0)..................25 25 24 25
San Francisco (kills-aces-blocks): Wenger 5-0-3, Cox 10-0-1, Mandala 13-0-1, Simmons 9-0-0, Caloiaro 6-0-1, Terrell 8-0-1, Irish 0-0-0, Sully 0-1-0, Ludes 0-0-0, Swain 0-0-0, Kilroy 0-0-0, Murtagh 0-0-0.
Creighton (kills-aces-blocks): Sanford 2-0-1, Thorson 7-0-7, Oelke 12-0-2, Bober 8-1-8, Boggs 1-0-0, Mandolfo 0-0-0, Benitez 0-0-0, Smith 3-0-2, Runge 18-0-0, Almgren 6-0-3.
Set assists: San Francisco 49 (Caloiaro 32); Creighton 55 (Bober 44). A—1,304.

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