Senior Rachel Hardwick (photo by d3photography.com)
Senior Rachel Hardwick (photo by d3photography.com)

Simpson sweeps Luther, earns fourth seed in conference tournament

DECORAH, Iowa – The Simpson College women's volleyball team secured the No. 4 seed in the upcoming American Rivers Conference Tournament with a 3-0 sweep of Luther.

The Storm (9-20, 4-4 A-R-C) hit a blistering .338 and served up 18 aces fueled by seven by Rachel Hardwick. Jada Schmidt led the offense with 14 kills, going without an error in 21 attempts for a .667 hitting efficiency.

Simpson cruised to its fifth sweep of the year with set scores of 25-13, 25-13 and 25-20. The Storm went on six scoring runs of five or more points throughout the match, with the largest being an 8-0 spree in the third set fueled by three straight aces from Emily Williams.    

STARS OF THE MATCH

NOTES

  • Simpson qualifies for its third straight conference tournament and will host for the first time since 2009.
  • The Storm earn their highest tournament seeding since 2010 with the win and tiebreaker over Central.
  • Simpson's .338 hitting efficiency is the team's highest since Oct. 13, 2018 when the Storm hit .424 against Monmouth with 48 kills and just nine errors in 92 attempts.
  • The Storm were one ace shy of tying the program record for aces in a three-set match (19, vs Blackburn, 10/25/2014).

UP NEXT
Simpson hosts No. 5-seed Central for the first round of the A-R-C Tournament on Tuesday night. Game time is to be determined.