Unforced errors plagued the volleyball team in its loss Wednesday night, Sept. 29 at home against Iowa Conference opponent, Luther.

The Norse beat Simpson in three straight sets going 24-26, 23-25, and 21-25. The loss put Simpson’s record at 6-8 overall and 1-3 in Iowa Conference play. With the win, Luther moved to 7-8 overall and 1-2 in the Iowa Conference.

On the night Simpson had 40 kills to Luther’s 36; however, Luther was much more efficient with a .200 hitting percentage to Simpson’s .124.

Luther is currently the conference leader in blocks with 2.8 blocks per set, and the Norse dominated net play on the night with 7.5 total blocks to the Storm’s 3 blocks.

“(Luther) set the tempo tonight with their size and they controlled their passes very well, too,” Head Volleyball Coach Lana Smith said. “The serving has to be better when you play a team like that.”

Simpson didn’t have an answer for Luther’s Hannah Walker who commanded the Norse to victory with 19 kills in the match and a .326 hitting percentage.

Senior outside hitter Amy Schuster notched 12 total points for the match.

“It almost felt like we were the better team tonight we just made errors at the wrong times and had some major rally killers,” Schuster said. “A few less key errors and we might have been the team coming out with the victory.”

Freshman middle hitter Morgan Terpstra had three kills in ten attempts.

“It almost felt like we gave one away tonight,” Terpstra said. “Even after we went down two games we knew we could still come back because we had barely lost the first two games.”  

Schuster shared some of the same feelings.

“Just because we went down two games you can’t dwell on it, you just have to start with a clean slate and work from there,” Schuster said.

Junior Megan Dunlavy led the Storm with 11 kills in the match.

“Megan Dunlavy controls the game for us and does everything well,” Smith said.

Leading the Storm with 29 assists was senior setter Lexie Hagerty who also had eight digs. Monica Driscoll had a game high 10 digs defensively as the defensive specialist.

“We need to minimize the errors at all positions in order to win those close games.” Smith said.

During the Border Battle tournament in St. Cloud, Minn. the volleyball team left without a win. The Storm fell to tough teams including nationally ranked No. 13 St. Olaf, No. 15 St. Thomas and No. 20 Concordia along with St. Benedict.