High hopes were in abundance when the volleyball, men’s soccerand women’s soccer teams started each of their conferencetournament runs this past weekend.

All three teams had the possibility of qualifying for the NCAAtournament in each of their respective sports.

Volleyball

When tournament time comes around, you are reminded of wackyfinishes in bowl games and those upsets that leave you scratchingyour head in the NCAA basketball tournament.

Volleyball is no different.

The Storm traveled to Wartburg for the Iowa Conferencevolleyball tournament this past weekend.

The second-seeded Storm came into the tournament finishing 6-2in conference play and a #22 ranking in the nation.

The Storm faced seventh-seeded Cornell who finished 2-6 inconference and whom they had defeated relatively easily in theregular season meeting in three matches.

Unlike the regular season meeting, the Storm fell victim to theupset bug and was defeated in five sets by the scores of 30-18,20-30, 31-29, 29-31 and 15-17.

Junior Shannon Stewart led the way with 27 kills and 10 digs,senior Rachael Spree had 18 kills and 16 digs and junior JamieCusick had 12 kills and two blocks for the Storm.

“We just didn’t play up to our potential,” said Cusick. “Wedidn’t pull together as a team when we needed to.”

Volleyball coach, Lana Smith, was thoroughly disappointed in herteams lack luster effort against the Rams.

“We didn’t have the heart, the guts or the focus,” said Smith.”Cornell really surprised us. Cornell had absolutely nothing tolose.”

This was the first time since 1987 that the Rams have beaten theStorm in a volleyball match-up.

Fourth-seeded Wartburg ended up being the surprising conferencetournament champion after defeating sixth-seeded Buena Vista inthree sets.

For the season, the Storm had an unblemished record of 11-0 onits home court and finished 23-10 overall.

Smith said that the team was almost a given to be in the NCAAtournament since there were a lot of upsets around the country, butthe loss just ruined the teams’ plans.

Said Smith, “We really had a great season and there were a lotof highlights, but this was just a disappointing finish.”

Men’s Soccer

Iowa Conference tournament action began Tuesday withquarterfinal action where the fifth seeded Storm, who finished4-3-1 in conference play, faced fourth seeded Central in Pella.

The Dutch finished the conference season 5-3, but the Storm hadalready defeated Central once this year.

The Storm, led by senior Brandon Volz, received more than enoughoffense in a 3-0 shutout against the Dutch.

Volz scored all three goals for the Storm with sophomore CharliePetersen assisting on two of them. Senior goalie, Jason Wichman,had seven saves on the night for the Storm.

“We came out hard and dominated the game,” said senior HenryPetersen.

On Friday, the Storm faced top-seeded Loras in the semifinals ofthe conference tournament in Dubuque.

Volz scored the lone goal off a corner kick with an assist fromfreshman Nate Ruhland in a 2-1 loss that ended the Storm’s seasonwith a final record of 12-7-2.

Petersen said the team played hard and the effort was there, butthe Storm just could not pull the win out to advance to the finals.Second-seeded Wartburg defeated Loras by the score 3-2 in thechampionship game.

For the season, Volz lead the team with 17 goals for the seasonwhile sophomore Angel Salcido followed with 12.

Senior Brady Spangenberg was the only men’s soccer player thatwas placed on the Academic All-District VII College Division SoccerTeams as selected by the College Sports Information Directors ofAmerica on Thursday.

To be eligible for this honor, a student-athlete must havereached sophomore academic and athletic standing, be a starter orkey reserve and possess at least a 3.20 cumulative grade pointaverage on a 4.0 scale.

Women’s Soccer

The Simpson women’s soccer team finished the conference seasonat 6-2 and was seeded third in the Iowa Conference tournament thatbegan last Tuesday night.

The Storm faced sixth seeded Wartburg and came away with a 3-0win to advance to the semifinals.

Freshman Megan Schonhorst started the scoring early for theStorm with a goal at the 8:49 mark in the first period.

That was the only goal in the first half for the Storm, but theteam got it going in the second period.

Senior Erin Goettl got the scoring going at the 51:04 mark tomake it a 2-0 lead.

Freshman Ashley Curran finished the scoring for the Storm at the71:40 mark to make the final score 3-0 over Wartburg.

“We did not play the best, but we pulled it together for thewin,” said Goettl.

On Friday, the Storm faced second-seeded Luther in thesemifinals of the Iowa Conference tournament in Dubuque.

Goettl scored the lone goal for the Storm with an assist fromfreshman April Bachinski in a 2-1 loss that ended the teams’ seasonat 11-8. Top seeded Loras was the eventual champion after defeatingLuther in a shoot-out, 6-5.

For the season, Goettl led the team for the season with 20goals, Curran was second with 10. Goettl was also placed on thefirst team Academic All-District VII College Division Soccer Teamin which District VII includes NCAA Division II, NCAA Division IIIand NAIA schools in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana,Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alberta andSaskatchewan.

When asked, Goettl seemed very optimistic about the team futurewithout her and fellow senior Lindsay Clark.

Goettl said that the team bonded really well this year andlearned to play with each other. “I think they are going to bereally good next year.”