Taking the Iowa Conference by Storm

Taking+the+Iowa+Conference+by+Storm

by Seth Nailor

Women’s soccer

The Simpson Storm women’s soccer team is flying high after a weekend that consisted of two big victories that have put it at 10-1 and 4-0 in the conference.

The Storm scored 19 goals in its two matches and surrendered only one goal.

But with all its successes the Storm is not satisfied.

“I think that we are a little disappointed. We realized how good we are and we aren’t playing up to our potential. We should be blowing teams out,” said senior Tracie Whitney.

Simpson started out the weekend by putting up 14 points on the Peacocks of Upper Iowa and winning and important conference road game. Sophomore Erin Goettl scored four goals to lead the Storm.

The women traveled back home on Sunday to take on Nebraska Wesleyan. Simpson won 6-1 as Whitney scored a goal and handed out an assist while Goettl again led the Storm with three goals and an assist.

The Storm will put its 4-0 conference record on the line when Luther College comes to town on Saturday.

“Luther is probably our biggest game because it is conference,” Whitney said. “We have to get down to the nitty-gritty.”

Men’s soccer

The Men’s soccer team is sporting a 7-2-1 record this year after a conference victory on Saturday and a big weekend coming up.

Simpson went to Fayette, Iowa and handed Upper Iowa a 6-1 loss. Freshman Bennie Zasendorf led the Storm with two goals and an assist while junior Brandon Vols tallied a goal and an assist.

The Storm is feeling good about its season despite a feeling of missed opportunity. “Of our losses Gustavus [Adolphus] is the only team that actually beat us. Otherwise we have beat ourselves,” said senior Matt Edgington.

The Storm will try to improve its record on Saturday against IIAC opponent Luther.

“Luther is always a powerhouse. They made it to the national tournament last year which is unheard of for an Iowa team,” said Edgington.

Edgington sees Luther as the Storm’s biggest conference rival and is looking forward to the game.

“It’s always a game when we get together,” Edgington said.

Football

The Simpson Storm turned things around last weekend with a 38-26 win at home against Cornell to make its record 2-2 on the season.

The Storm jumped out to a 24-6 lead behind a 10-yard touchdown run by senior Pete Kirwan and an interception returned for a touchdown by junior Brian Budach.

The early second quarter lead made it look like it was going to be a long day for the Rams but Cornell scored twice before halftime to get them back into the game.

In the second half Cornell scored first and put the Storm behind 26-24 and in jeopardy of losing two straight conference games. In the fourth quarter junior Mike Donnewerth hit senior Jesse Van Buren on two touchdown passes to seal the deal for Simpson.

Donnenwerth finished the day 13-18 for 250 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Van Buren had seven catches for 175 yards and three touchdowns.

Senior Todd Samuels led Simpson defensively with 12 tackles. The Storm came up with three interceptions from Budach, senior Brian Koenig and sophomore Kyle Westphal.

The Storm will travel to Pella next week to take on conference rival Central College. The Storm will try to become the first Iowa Conference team to win in Pella in 24 attempts.

Women’s Tennis

The Simpson College women’s tennis team takes a 10-4 overall record and a 7-4 conference record into the conference tournament in Cedar Rapids this weekend.

Coach Bob Nutgrass said that his team could very easily be in the No. 3 spot instead of its current fifth seed for this weekend’s tournament. He credits two heartbreaking losses to Coe and Loras to the disappointing seed. Simpson dropped both of those matches by a score of 5-4.

“We’re going to have to kick it in this week. We get Coe in the first round, so this time we need to beat them, that’s our goal,” said Nutgrass.

Nutgrass knows that his team will have to play well if it wants to advance in the tournament. If the Storm win its first round match then it will most likely have to play defending champion Cornell.

“We have to play better than extremely well to beat them.” Said Nutgrass.

Nutgrass, however, is enjoying a solid year with his team. “I’ve been very happy with this team. This kind of year doesn’t come around every year so we’re trying to savor it while we can,” said Nutgrass.

The Storm are having this good year and doing it with freshmen filling four of its top eight spots. Freshman Tracy Schiltz has only lost two matches all year long and fellow freshman Carrie Brannen is also enjoying a great year in the No. 2 two spot.

Despite the abundance of young players in the top eight, senior Sherry Warren leads the team at the No. 1 spot.

“She’s been a varsity contributor for four years and has done a lot for our program,” said Nutgrass.