Women's volleyball earns gritty 3-2 win over Webster

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Down two sets to one, the Simpson College women's volleyball team clawed back for a five-set victory over Webster on Friday night, taking the final two frames in extra points to secure a gritty win on the road.

The Storm (10-2) dropped the opener before evening the match with a 25-17 win in set two. Webster (2-7) regained the upper hand with a third-set victory, putting Simpson on the brink. The Storm trailed by as many as five in the fourth before storming back with a 9-3 run to grab a 20-19 lead. Facing match point twice, Simpson got crucial kills from Lucia Gomez de Luis, Morgan DenBeste and Caroline Kinkeade to close it out 28-26 and force a decisive fifth set.

Webster struck first in the finale, but the Storm answered quickly. DenBeste delivered back-to-back kills, Maddie Dunham followed with an ace, and Hannah Jansen capped a 7-3 surge with another ace to put Simpson up 14-11. The Gorlocks fought off three match points to tie it at 14-all, but Simpson leaned once again on DenBeste and Kinkeade to finish the job, taking the set 17-15 and the match 3-2.

TOP PERFORMERS

• Morgan DenBeste: 12 kills, 17 assists, 15 digs
• Peyton Mitchell: 14 kills, 4 digs, 3 blocks
• Jada Schmidt: 11 kills, 3 blocks
• Caroline Kinkeade: 9 kills, 3 blocks
• Maddie Dunham: 28 digs, 3 aces
• Lauren Dockendorff: 30 assists, 7 digs

NOTES

• Morgan DenBeste now has four triple doubles this season, joining Jamie Holton (Methodist) and Kamryn Skeith (Lycoming) as the only Division III players in the country to achieve that feat thus far.
• This is only the sixth time in program history Simpson has tallied 10 wins in their first 12 matches.
• Simpson improves to 3-0 in five-set matches in 2025.

UP NEXT
The Storm are set to face Concordia Wisconsin tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. and No. 7 Washington (Mo.) at 3 p.m.