Storm volleyball toppled by the Knights

by Brett Crable

The Simpson College Storm Volleyball team was back on the floor taking on the No. 15 nationally ranked team in Wartburg College.

Wartburg toppled the Simpson College women’s volleyball team in three straight sets, winning the match ultimately 3-0 Wednesday evening, but the storm were not going to go down easy and were grinding out every point.

The Knights came into play with a record of 14-1 overall and 3-0 in the IIAC. Simpson came into play 3-12 overall and 1-2 in the IIAC.

The Storm put up a fight in every single contest, but the orange and black won 25-18, 25-17 and 25-21.

Despite the outcome of the match, Simpson sophomore middle hitter Lauren Martin felt that the Storm played really well as a team.

“We just really need to work on our side, work on our errors and make sure that we take care of our side of the net,” Martin said.

Martin provided much spark to the Storm’s killing efforts. The sophomore tallied 3 spikes, 6 kills, 15 assists and triggered the third set magic by getting a kill to take the 18-17 lead over the Knights, their only lead throughout the match.

Other notables for the Storm is senior McKaylie Croghan, who led the team with ten kills, freshman Tabitha Blaser who racked up 17 assists, and junior Kim Rogers who led the team in digs with 12.

Rogers knows that her team is getting better each time they play.

“It’s just kind of finding our consistency, that’s the problem right now,” Rogers said. “We did a lot of good things. We did a lot of good blocking, a lot of good swinging and a lot of good passing. We’ve just got to put it all together.”

Rogers, as well as the rest of the Storm, are looking forward to the opportunity to play again. The squad will be on the road playing at the Grinnell Triangular at Grinnell College. They will be going up against Knox College at 1 p.m. and then matching up against the host Grinnell.

The Storm took all three sets against the Pioneers when the two squared off against one another at the Simpson Invitational on Sept. 14.