The Simpson women’s soccer team struggled defensively allowing five goals to the Wartburg Knights to defeat the Storm 5-1 Thursday.

The Knights scored early out of the gate against the Storm as they improved to 8-1-2 overall and 2-0 in the Iowa Conference. Kaylee Benning led the scoring attack with a hat trick. She scored goals in the 2nd minute, 34th minute, and scored late in the second half at the 79th minute mark.

Wartburg also had contributions Rachel Torry and Anna Aquino as they scored goals for their ball club.

The Storm were led by Amber Johnson who scored in the 71st minute assisted by Kara Lovik. But defense was issue as the Storm fell to 7-4 on the season.

Head Coach Ryan Sander felt his team didn’t come out ready defensively.

“We let Wartburg score early and it hurt us in the end”, Sander said. “We played an excellent game defensively against Grand View last week, but we have to continue to play defense consistently throughout the entire game.”

Simpson will be on the pitch Saturday to kickoff a men’s and women’s doubleheader at Dubuque to take on the Spartans at 1 p.m.