Blaser leads volleyball to five-set win over William Penn

OSKALOOSA, Iowa – Tabitha Blaser tallied a match-high 20 kills, Katie Kieffer handed out 58 assists and the Simpson volleyball team came back from a 2-1 deficit to beat William Penn in five sets (25-22, 25-27, 21-25, 25-20, 15-8) on Monday night.

Blaser led a balanced attack by the Storm (4-2), hitting .487 in 39 total attempts. She led four Simpson players in double digit kills, as MacKenzie McGraw had 16, Olivia Sulentic had 12 and Torey Buenger finished with 10.

Sulentic posted a double-double with 17 digs and Buenger posted four block assists. Kayla Aronow had a game-high 30 digs.

Simpson trailed 14-9 in a must-win fourth set before rattling off seven straight points, capped off by a Blaser kill. Up 23-20, Simpson got a kill from Buenger and an attack error from William Penn to close out the set.

The Storm controlled the fifth and deciding set, closing out the win with three straight kills from Blaser.

Kylie Giger and Kayce Skocko recorded 15 kills apiece to lead the Statesmen (2-8).

The Storm travel to the Gustavus Adolphus Invitational at St. Peter, Minn. this weekend. Simpson faces Augsburg and UW-Stout on Friday and Gustavus Adolphus and Bethel on Saturday.