Three Storm volleyball players earn A-R-C honors
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- For the first time since the 2010 season, the Simpson College volleyball team had three student-athletes land on the American Rivers Conference All-Conference Team, as announced by the league on Thursday.
Junior Jessica Jacobs was named to the A-R-C First Team while junior Marissa Salber and sophomore Iman Ghalibaf both earned honorable mention honors. The trio led the Storm (8-15, 4-4 A-R-C) to their first appearance in the conference tournament in eight seasons thanks to four victories in league play, the most since tallying five in 2010.
Jacobs was a consistent attacking threat for the Storm all season, knocking down 341 kills for a league-best 4.15 per set average. She tallied 177 of her kills in A-R-C action, 46 more than any other conference opponent, and led the league with 4.58 points per set. Jacobs reached double figure kills on 15 occasions - including all but one A-R-C match where she tallied nine - and surpassed 20 kills four times. The Janesville, Iowa native hit .247 against league defenses to rank 11th on the conference leaderboard and closed her junior campaign with a career-high 30 kills in the Storm's tournament loss against Loras, beating out her previous marks of 29 and 28 as the conference's highest single-game total this year.
Salber, a junior from Omaha, Neb., landed on the Honorable Mention Team following an impressive performance from the setter position this year. She ranked third in the conference with 316 assists in league play and had 634 total assists to sit in fifth. Salber finished second on the team in digs (210), tied for second in aces (20), and third in total blocks (20). She accumulated 10 double-doubles throughout the year and had a career-high 53 assists against Nebraska Wesleyan on Sept. 15.
Ghalibaf also found a spot on the Honorable Mention Team after a solid sophomore campaign. The Storm's libero amassed 331 digs this season to rank sixth in the conference and had some of her best performances against A-R-C foes; Ghalibaf reached double-digit digs in all but one league match for a total of 178 digs, the second most by a conference defender. She ended the season as one of three athletes to average more than five digs per set in A-R-C action. Ghalibaf ranked second on the team in assists (72) and tied for second in aces (20).
