Simpson faces three ranked foes at Border Battle

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. - Facing some of the nation's toughest teams at this weekend's annual MIAC-IIAC Border Battle, Simpson came away without a win, falling to No. 13 St. Olaf, St. Benedict, No. 15 St. Thomas and No. 20 Concordia.

Simpson lost to St. Olaf, 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-18), St. Benedict, 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-21), St. Thomas, 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-14) and Concordia, 3-1 (19-25, 25-9, 25-19, 25-17).

As a whole, the Iowa Conference didn't win a match in 18 tries at the St. Joseph section of the tournament. Four of 12 Minnesota Conference schools appeared in the latest AVCA Top-25 poll.

"We faced outstanding competition this weekend," head coach Lana Smith said. "The MIAC is one of the permier conferences in the country and we experienced that first hand."

Despite failing to win a match, Smith and an inury-laded Storm (6-12) team were able to take a number of positives from the weekend.

"There were lots of small victories for us," Smith said. "We played solid defense, we got our serving under control and we started getting Megan (Dunlavy) and Amy (Schuster) the ball in good attacking situations."

Leading the team with 37 kills in Simpson's four matches, Schuster (Indianola, Iowa) earned a spot on the all-tournament team. Dunlavy (Bettendorf, Iowa) had 33 kills and a team-high .183 hitting percentage. She aded seven service aces, Schuster had four and McKaylie Croghan (Manning, Iowa) had six. Lexie Hagerty (Tama, Iowa) handed out 84 assists.

Defensively, Monica Driscoll (Williamsburg, Iowa) scooped 57 digs and Morgan Terpstra (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) was a part of 10 block-assists.

"We're still trying to get our whole team together, but we are learning a lot as we go," Smith said. "We still need to work on consistency, but the effort is always there."

Simpson returns to Iowa Conference play Tuesday, Oct. 5 when it travels to Pella to face the Dutch at 7:30 p.m.