Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
There were also a few crazy weeks during the volleyball season these last four years where the academic and sports responsibilities unavoidably collided to create a frenzied, jam-packed agenda for Norah Sis and Kendra Wait.
One particular week last fall sticks out. On a recent From the Mall podcast episode, the two former Creighton volleyball stars reminisced about it — er, they tried to reminisce (it is, even now, kind of a blur!)
Sis and Wait battled with their team in an intense five-set defeat at No. 5 Nebraska on Tuesday, Sept. 10. They bused home, arrived after midnight and tried their best to drain out all their adrenaline so they could get some sleep. They both had a 10-hour hospital shift that began at 6 a.m.
“That was an interesting day at the hospital — a little sleep deprived,” Wait said with a smile.
The next day, they were traveling with the team to Kentucky for a three-match weekend against more top-tier competition.
Sis wasn’t even sure she fully remembered how the whole experience went down.
Here’s what they do know: Balancing their nursing degrees and their volleyball careers was indeed quite challenging. But they did it. How? Sis and Wait said they had understanding and encouragement from each other, their coaches and teammates, and the Creighton College of Nursing faculty.
Their stories of athletic and academic achievement — as volleyball players and nurses — would not be possible at most colleges, according to Sis and Wait. They were both All-Americans in 2024 after helping the Bluejays complete the best volleyball season in program history. Wait ended her career as a three-time Academic All-American.
“It just shows you the support that Creighton has as a community,” Wait said. “They don’t see individuals as one thing — they pride themselves as a university (on promoting) the many aspects of being a human being.
“They said, we’ll do whatever we can so you guys can do what you love to do.”
And that hasn’t changed, even this spring, after Wait and Sis became professional volleyball players. Sis just won the 2025 Pro Volleyball Federation championship with the Orlando Valkyries. Wait completed her first season with the Omaha Supernovas.
They still had school and nursing degrees to pursue. The support from their Creighton friends and mentors never wavered.
“For us to be continuing this and to be carrying out two dreams at once, we are super-duper blessed,” Sis said.
Listen to the full From the Mall episode to learn more from Sis and Wait, including:
- Why they both have loved suddenly going from star players to … rookies
- How it went in college basically spending every minute together
- What they remember most about their time with the volleyball team
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Below is an excerpt from the episode. The following questions and answers have been edited for space and clarity.
How did you balance the challenges of going to school and playing professional volleyball this past spring?
Norah Sis: “It’s been awesome. We cannot thank our nursing staff at Creighton enough. They have gone above and beyond. I always say when I committed to play at Creighton, I told (former coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth) and, she was like, ‘What are you thinking for your major?’ I told her nursing. She said, ‘Oh, that's going to be really hard.’
“I had no idea what all that entailed, and I didn't know how lucky I was to be able to go to Creighton and do both. Because that's not the case (at other schools). I really didn't know that. So, I grew into understanding how big of a deal that was and how awesome it was that they were letting us do that.
Kendra Wait: “I remember having a conversation with our nursing advisor as this was kind of all coming up and we were talking about our plan. We said, ‘Hey, we want to play professional volleyball — what would this look like? Would this be possible?’”
“And they said, ‘As nursing faculty, we want you to pursue your other dreams. We still want you to be a nurse, and we want to support you in any way he can, but we still want you to go pursue your other dreams.’ I thought that was really, really cool of them to do.”
Did you know, Kendra, what you were getting into from the start? As Norah said, she kind of figured it out.
Kendra Wait: “Nursing school is challenging, and I knew not a lot of colleges allowed you to do both (nursing and volleyball) because of the time commitment and the challenges that came with it. But I thought, if Creighton is willing for me to do it, then I want to go pursue it.
“And I definitely will say it's not without its challenges. I've talked to many Creighton nursing alumni who are like, ‘Nursing school is so hard, how do you do it?’ And again, it's the support from everybody — teammates, coaches, faculty, staff. Everybody just willing to work so well with each other made this a lot easier process.”
What kind of advice do you give either your teammates or maybe even somebody who is aspiring to do what you're doing? How do you balance the responsibilities of being a student-athlete?
Norah Sis: “I would say honestly, one of the biggest aspects that has been the most helpful is having Kendra. Obviously not everyone gets this luxury, but surrounding yourself with people who love what you do as much as you. We were grinding it out together, so it made it that much more enjoyable. I know that Kendra wants to give her all to both volleyball and nursing, so that was always encouraging me and that was always holding me accountable.”
Kendra Wait: “I would also say having people around you support you, even if that's family members or maybe there's someone else, away from everything, who you can just go to. I think that is huge. Because again, it can seem very long; it can seem very daunting. But when you're in it, it's just taking it one step at a time.”
It makes sense being teammates and both students in the College of Nursing, but I didn’t realize you did spend a ton of time together. The chemistry was obvious on the court, at least. It translated. Did you two you ever disagree on the court?
Norah Sis: “Probably the most disagreeing we ever did was if something went wrong, I would say that was my fault, and Kendra would say, ‘No, that was my fault.’ And then we could never do anything about it.”
There was a cool moment for a lot of Creighton fans to see you guys both on the court together professionally for the first time. Back in February. The Orlando Valkyries played a match against the Omaha Supernovas. It’s happened since, but how special was that moment to you?
Norah Sis: “Yeah, super cool. And also, the first time that I was back in Omaha, just how our whole (Creighton) team showed up. Just seeing the coaches and everyone there, that was incredibly special. Yeah, I will never take that for granted.”
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Listen to more From the Mall.
