Oct. 21, 2022 – Lillis Athletic and Wellness Center was rocking on Friday night as the Loras College volleyball team pulled off an improbable comeback to earn its first American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) play victory of the year with a win over Simpson College.

The Duhawks (7-17, 1-6 A-R-C) looked flat to start the match, but turned things around when it mattered most to erase an 0-2 deficit to the Storm (11-11, 2-4 A-R-C).

After a pair of dominating victories from the Storm, the match looked destined to end after just three sets, but the Duhawks had other plans. Loras slowly built a lead in the third set and managed to pull away late with a string of four straight points highlighted by a pair of kills from senior pin James Keefe.

The Duhawks took the third set 25-15 to extend the match and rode that momentum into the fourth set. Freshman pin Sophie Younkin tallied a pair of quick kills to start the set, and the Duhawks never looked back. Younkin produced one of her best games as a Duhawk and punctuated that third set by scoring Loras' final three points to send the match to a fifth frame.

Simpson got out to a quick lead to silence a solid home crowd for the Duhawks, but the lead wasn't large enough to keep the Duhawks down. Loras trailed 8-5, but rattled off four straight points thanks to a kill and a block assist from each Keefe and freshman middle blocker Elaina Schroeder.

That run sent the Duhawks to a narrow lead, which they maintained through the rest of the back-and-forth set to come away with a 15-13 set win to improbably take the match 3-2.

Younkin led Loras with a career-high 17 kills, giving her 10 more than the next-highest Duhawk. She also did so efficiently as she tallied a .341 attacking percentage to lead the team.

Sophomore middle blocker Cat Gleason did a little bit of everything in the match as she accounted for six kills, four block assists, three digs, three assists, and three service aces to help the Duhawks to victory.

Loras has a quick turnaround for tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 22 as they will face Central College at 1 P.M. at Lillis Court.