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

• Jada Schmidt - 14 kills (66.7%), 4 digs
• Emily Williams - 10 kills, 5 digs, 3 aces
• Peyton Mitchell - 8 kills, 3 aces, 3 blocks
• Morgan DenBeste - 29 assists, 8 digs, 2 aces
• Rachel Hardwick - 7 aces, 2 digs
• Kylie McVey - 3 aces, 2 digs

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.