New-look Creighton, led by VBM All-Americans Sis, Wait, “will be a pretty good team”

Big East powerhouse Creighton is headed into a season of transition.

Roster changes, hopefully the return of a top player, a longtime assistant has moved on, but there will still be plenty of talent in Omaha.

“I think every year is a year of transition as far as the players go,” 20th-year Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “There are always new players coming in. Players graduate, players leave.”

You can start with who’s back, and that includes VolleyballMag.com national freshman of the year Norah Sis. Sis, the 6-foot-1 outside hitter from nearby Paillion-La Vista High School, was also a VBM third-team All-American after leading the Bluejays in kills with 435 (3.75/set). She was third on the team in digs at 2.96/set and had 70 blocks and 19 aces.

The other jewel of that freshman class was setter Kendra Wait, a 5-10 product of Gardner, Kansas, who was a VBM honorable-mention All-American. She led the Big East in assists, averaging 10.46/set and had 21 aces and 99 blocks.

“The fun thing about Norah and Kendra is they’re really good, but the list of things they can get better at is really good, too, and they get that,” Booth said. “They’re both so easy to coach. 

“Norah physically is really talented, probably more talented that we realized. You know, she was on the same team forever with (Nebraska star) Lindsay Krause and Lindsay is so physical that sometimes Norah’s physicality was missed by a lot of us. I knew she’d come in and be good. I don’t know if I knew how good.”

Booth said Sis — who can do a standing back flip and was a two-time Nebraska prep high-jump champion — is impressive in the weight room and with movement skills.

“She was a high jump state champion, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. But the other thing, again, as I coach longer, you know that you can have talented athletes, but if they don’t have the head for it they’re never going to be great. The thing that I really love about that freshman class (now sophomores) is they have the heads to be great, which is exciting.”

For the record, Wait won the Kansas Class 6A state titles in the 100 (12.02 seconds), shot put (42 feet, 2.5 inches), long jump (18-5) and pole vault (11-0) in a three-hour span on the same day.   

Another key player is back — sort of.

Jaela Zimmerman, who was second on the team…