Contact: Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243

INDIANOLA, Iowa (Oct. 9, 2021) - Rounding out their weekend on the road, the Loras College women's volleyball team (14-4, 3-2 A-R-C) took on the Simpson College Storm (5-7, 3-1 A-R-C) in an American Rivers Conference contest. Senior hitter Lyndsi Wilgenbusch highlighted the Duhawks' impressive offensive efforts in the match, leading the team with a career-best 27 kills in the five set thriller. 

The first set of the match saw both teams score back and forth, with the score tying twice before Simpson went ahead by three early at 7-4. The Storm held the lead through the middle of the set, going up by no more than four until taking a five point lead after scoring three straight to bring the score to 17-12. The Duhawks kickstarted a comeback later in the set, posting four straight on a pair of kills from Liz Fleckenstein and two Simpson attacking errors to bring Loras back within two at 22-20. Simpson fought off the Duhawks' pressure to take the first set 25-22.


The Duhawks used the first set loss as fuel in the second set, taking a dominant lead from the jump, outscoring Simpson 8-2 early with two of the Duhawks' points coming from Simpson errors. In the middle of the set, the Duhawks went on a nine-point barrage to take their biggest lead of the match at 22-6 before Cat Gleason closed the set out with a huge kill on an assist from Sara Hoskins to tie the match score at 1-1 going into the third. 

As was the story in the first set, the two teams traded blows early with the Storm taking a two point lead early at 5-3 before Wilgenbusch sparked the Loras offense, seeing the Duhawks go on to score six straight to take the lead again at 9-5. The Duhawks put steady and consistent pressure on the Storm in the middle of the set, outscoring them 5-1 to go ahead by eight at 19-11. The Storm tried to make a comeback late in the set but the Duhawks were too much to handle as Fleckenstein floored a kill to end the set with a final score of 25-17. 

With a one set advantage going into the fourth, the Duhawks rode the momentum from the third and put three straight points on the board on a Gleason kill and a pair of Simpson errors. Loras continued to hold the lead until Simpson jumped ahead by one after scoring five straight.The Duhawks kept it close through the set, tying the score back up at 13-13 on back-to-back kills from Fleckenstein and Moira Mixan and took the lead at 15-14 after two straight kills from Gleason and Wilgenbusch. The two A-R-C foes battled through the end of the set, seeing the score tie seven times before Simpson posted two straight kills to win the set 26-24 and tie the match back at 2-2 to force a fifth set to decide a victor. 

With the match on the line, the Duhawks got on the board twice in the beginning of the fifth set, taking advantage of two Simpson errors to go ahead 2-0 early. The Storm scored two more of their own before Fleckenstein floored a kill and a Simpson ball handling error gave Loras two back to stay two points ahead at 4-2. From that point on, the score tied a total of eight times as the two teams grinded to the end but the Storm prevailed to take the set 15-13 and win the match 3-2. 

The Duhawks offense shined in the match, seeing the team hit .253 percent with Wilgenbusch leading the attack with her career-best 27 kills. Fleckenstein followed with 18 kills of her own while Gleason added 13. Mixan led the Duhawks at the service line with two aces in the match, becoming four all-time in career service aces with 131 in her career. Sam Stoffregen and Gleason also added an ace apiece. Gleason was a brick wall defensively, tallying a solid seven total blocks in the match joined by Fleckenstein who had three and Mixan who added two. Hoskins posted 53 assists in the match and libero Krystal Tranel had 21 digs with Talia McAtee helping with 19 of her own. 

Loras is back on the road on Wednesday, Oct. 13 as they travel to Waverly, Iowa to square off against No. 7 Wartburg College. The match is scheduled to begin at 7:30 PM at Levick Arena.