STORM LAKE, Iowa (Nov. 12, 2026) - The second-seed Buena Vista volleyball team made quick work of third-seed Simpson College on Thursday night, sweeping past the Storm by scores of 25-16, 25-16 and 25-18, to advance into its fifth tournament championship match all-time.

The Beavers had a stellar .308 attack percentage on the night and held Simpson to only a .078 clip. Sophomore Charley Hernandez led all players with 14 kills and moves to within 400 on the year. She had only four errors  on the night and turned in an attack percentage of .357. In addition, the outside hitter turned in her 17th double-double of the year by adding 17 digs while also chipping in with two solo blocks.

Senior Sydney Meints and freshman Nora Konz each followed with nine kills as Meints did so with only one error. Konz just missed out on another double-double after registering 13 digs. Freshman Jocelyn O'Neal turned in match-high mark of .571 with four kills on seven swings.

Junior setters Merced Ramirez and Anabel Seaman were dealing out assists at another high rate with 21 and 17, respectively, with Ramirez also adding five digs and Seaman two ace serves.

BVU,  playing in front of a loud and packed Fieldhouse, came out on fire from the opening serve, building a quick 7-2 lead and forcing an early timeout by the Storm. The Beavers managed to maintain that margin throughout the set and led by as many as nine on two separate occasions down the stretch before a Simpson serving error closed out the set.

Both teams played the second set back-and-forth with 10 ties and five lead changes until the Beavers  ran off three straight points to go up 15-13 and never relinquished the lead from there. Simpson managed to get as close as 16-15, but BVU took advantage of a pair of attack errors by the Storm during a 3-0 run that pushed the margin to 19-15, and they surrendered only one more point the remainder of the set.

The third set was tight early on with the two teams all tied up at 6-6, but four straight kills by four different Beavers put the team up for good at 10-6. Simpson clawed back to within 10-8, but BVU rolled off six straight to seize control and wrapped things up with a kill from Meints.

Simpson (18-10) got a team-high eight kills from Lucia Gomez de Luis.

Buena Vista improves to 23-3 on the season and is set to make its first tournament championship appearance since 2022 which was head coach Will Baumann's first season on the bench. The team will travel to the top-seed University of Dubuque (26-5) on Saturday, Nov. 14, seeking to win its first-ever tournament title and make its first-ever NCAA berth. BVU fell in a five-set thriller to the Spartans on Oct. 17 inside of Siebens Fieldhouse which marked the team's first loss this season.

First serve in Dubuque is for 7 p.m.