Volleyball comes up short at unbeaten Grinnell

GRINNELL, Iowa -- The Simpson volleyball team returned back to Iowa for a nonconference contest at Grinnell Thursday evening, but lost 3-1 to the unbeaten Pioneers.

Grinnell (9-0) was able to keep it's perfect record intact with set scores of 25-23, 21-25, 25-15, 25-23 while hitting .209 as a team.

Although the Storm (4-4) dropped three sets, they had opportunities to win the match. They were down 7-2 in the opening set before going on a 15-3 run to go out in front 17-10 after the Pioneers committed seven attack errors. Simpson moved it to 21-16, but the hosts used a four-point surge to come within one and tied things up at 23-23 before taking the set completely.

In the fourth set, the Storm garnered a 19-15 lead and looked to even things up, but Grinnell used an 8-3 run to go up by one and would hold on to win. The Pioneers hit .209 in the set while holding their counterparts to just a .087 hitting clip.

Simpson captured its lone set victory in the second after falling down 4-0. The quartet of Madison Fleer, Kenedy Grant, Megan LeMay and Hannah Lester fired off consecutive kills to put the set at 11-9 in favor of the visitors. The Pioneers fought back and went out in front at 16-15, but a Kamryn Juni kill tied things up a point later and again at 18-18. LeMay would pour in two more kills to help regain the lead at 22-19 and the Storm would close the door at 25-21.

Overall, the team hit .133 with Lester tallying 12 kills for a .200 hitting percentage. Alyssa Mathews ended with 30 assists and 10 digs. Blair Glendenning added 12 digs to help the squad.

Up Next
Simpson takes the weekend off and will compete on Wednesday at Central. The American Rivers Conference clash will start at 7:30 p.m. in Pella, Iowa.