Volleyball splits at Simpson Invitational

INDIANOLA, Iowa – The Simpson volleyball team went 2-0 on the first day of the 22nd Simpson College Volleyball Invitational, but dropped a pair of hard-fought five-set matches on Saturday, finishing the tournament in fourth place.

Simpson defeated Northwestern (Minn.) in its first match of the tournament, 25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 27-25. After working through a few kinks in the first match, The Storm turned things around with a 3-0 defeat against St. Mary's to close out day one, 25-21, 25-21, 25-19.

Simpson lost an emotional five-match set against eventual tournament-champion Nebraska Wesleyan in its third match of the tournament, 25-9, 24-26, 25-16, 25-21, 15-10. After losing the first two sets, Simpson stormed back into the contest, largely due to the play of sophomore middle hitter, Megan Dunlavy (Bettendorf, Iowa), who hit a team-high .320 while totaling 12 kills. The comeback bid fell short, however, as the Prairie Wolves took the fifth and final set.

Seeded second in "Pool A," Simpson matched up with Iowa Conference-foe Wartburg, the No. 2 seed from "Pool B" in the tournament's consolation match. Unlike the match before, Simpson got off to a positive start against the Knights, winning the first match, 28-26. The Knights went on to win the next two matches (25-17, 25-16) before junior outside hitter Amy Schuster (Indianola, Iowa) came alive, leading the Storm to a 25-20 victory in the fourth set.

Schuster, who had been relatively quiet, accumulated a team-high .326 hitting percentage in the match. However, the late rally fell short for a second-straight match as Wartburg triumphed in the fifth-and-deciding set, 15-13.

With a team-leading 51 kills on the weekend, senior outside hitter Lara Gillespie (Lake Park, Iowa) earned a bid to the all-tournament team. Dunlavy's .269 hitting percentage paced the Storm on the weekend, totaling 40 kills. Shuster and Whitney Oviatt (Sr., Carnation, Wash.) accumulated 47 kills each, with Oviatt turning in 11 blocks, leading the team.

Simpson's all-time assists leader Tara Christensen (Sr., Hinton, Iowa) totaled 163 assists in the tournament. Simpson's other all-time leader, Brittany Friesth (Sr., Adel, Iowa) led the defense with 65 digs.

Simpson will stay home for their next match, returning to conference play against Buena Vista Wednesday at Cowles Fieldhouse. The match is set to start at 7:30 p.m.