Simpson volleyball dropped its first conference match Wednesday night to Luther loosing 3-1.

Simpson got off to a rough start losing the first set 25-13. At one point in the set, the Storm saw themselves down 21-8.

But they came back strong in the second set winning it easily 25-14 but the third and fourth sets belonged to Luther as they won them 25-21 and 25-18, respectively.

Head Coach Lana Smith knows what the team needs to work on to continue to improve.

“We are just really inconsistent right now,” Smith said. “Tonight our serve-receive really let us down.”

Steph Keller led the Storm with a season high 19 kills and Morgan Terpstra, junior from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, added a career high 9 kills.

The Storm dominated the kills column 53-29 and also had a higher attack average with .168 to Luther’s .144.

Despite the loss, Smith said the team still played decent given the circumstances.

“With three starters out with ankle injuries I think we did alright,” Smith said. “We had to put some kids in positions that they don’t normally play.”

“Every match we seem to get better with certain things,” Smith said. “Morgan Terpstra did awesome with blocking tonight and that is something we wanted to see from her. And we have been waiting to see Steph Keller get hot and she did tonight and had a nice match.”

It was the errors that hurt the Storm tonight. The unforced errors allowed Luther to maintain control of the match even though the Storm was dominate in the offensive category.

Smith knows what the team has to improve on before their next match against conference rival Wartburg.

“In practice we are going to have to serve and pass, definitely. The rest will work out itself, but our passing really got us in trouble tonight.”

Luther is now 8-6 overall and 1-1 in the conference after tonight.

The Storm will practice this week in preparation for their match next Wednesday against nationally ranked Wartburg, who are ranked first in the conference.