STORM LAKE, Iowa (Nov. 1, 2022) - The Buena Vista volleyball team avenged its earlier season loss at Simpson by sweeping the Storm in front of an electric Siebens Fieldhouse crowd on Tuesday night in an American Rivers Conference quarterfinal match.

Junior Molly McCauley led a balanced offensive attack for BVU with eight kills while junior Rachel Brockney and sophomore Courtney Johnson each added seven. Senior Hannah Smith, the reigning A-R-C Offensive Player of the Week, was held to five kills but chipped in with a team-leading 16 digs and three aces. Taylor Wedemeyer dished out 27 assists and moves within 37 assists of second-place on the program's all-time career list.

BVU posted one of its strongest defensive performances of the year and held the Storm, who ranked third in the A-R-C during conference play with a .188 attack percentage to only a .050 clip this time around. The team forced Simpson into 20 attack errors and only 26 kills while finishing with 12 block assists. Junior Skylar Cole, along with Johnson, led the charge with three each. 

The Beavers came out on fire, scoring the first four points of the match before extending it to an 11-2 cushion. The Storm, however, settled in and rolled off four straight of their own to spark a 14-2 run that put them in front 17-14. It was back-and-forth down the stretch until the Beavers closed the set out with four straight points, including a kill by Smith, to wrap things up at 25-23.

It was more of the same intensity throughout the second set with neither team leading by more than three points until BVU scored four straight to build a 22-19 advantage. Simpson had a pair of untimely service errors down the stretch, including the final one at set point.

BVU came out strong in the third set by scoring five of the first six points to build a quick 6-1 lead and never looked back. The margin grew to 16-6 after a 6-0 spurt as the Beavers went on to win 25-12 o knock off the Storm for the sixth straight time in Storm Lake.

Buena Vista improves to 12-11 on the year and moves on to play at No. 2 seed Wartburg College on Thursday, Nov. 3, at 7:00 p.m.