Thanks to better hitting performances than they’ve had recently, the Iowa State Cyclones earned a 3-1 victory over an in-state foe, the Northern Iowa Panthers, on Tuesday, which was a special night at Hilton Coliseum.  

The Cyclones are now 3-3 this season.

 Christy Johnson-Lynch reaches career milestone

With their win on Tuesday, the Cyclones gave head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch her 150th career win at Hilton Coliseum. 

“We had a great crowd tonight and I thought they helped us out a lot tonight,” Johnson-Lynch said. “They were loud and gave us a lot of energy.”

Johnson-Lynch now holds a record of 150-52 in Hilton Coliseum in her 15-year tenure at Iowa State.

“Hilton’s a special place and I’ve had a lot of coaches come in and tell me that they hate playing here,” Johnson-Lynch said. “This is one of the hardest places to win a volleyball match and a lot of that is because of our fans.” 

Iowa State had somewhat inconsistent hitting on Tuesday

After poor hitting percentages against the then sixth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions where they hit .126 and a .124 hitting percentage against the Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers, the Cyclones had a good night hitting percentage of .271. 

“Tonight we went out there and stayed aggressive throughout the entire match,” said sophomore right-side player Eleanor Holthaus. 

Iowa State had two good hitting periods but also had a mediocre hitting period and one bad period hitting wise. 

The Cyclones’ good hitting periods came in the first and fourth sets. In the first set, the Cyclones had a .283 hitting percentage and in the fourth set, the Cyclones had a .375 hitting percentage.

Set two saw Iowa State take the set 25-19 despite having a hitting percentage of .212.

The third set saw Northern Iowa take the set 26-24, thanks to Iowa State having it’s worst hitting period of the night with a .186 hitting percentage.

Northern Iowa hit well in the fourth set with a .280 hitting percentage but Iowa State won the set 25-21 and the match 3-1. 

Candelaria Herrera shows out

One of the reasons the Cyclones had a decent hitting night is because of junior middle blocker Candelaria Herrera.  

Herrera had nine kills on 21 attacks and a hitting percentage of .429 which led the team. 

“She’s been a little up and down recently, she’s been getting a little frustrated, but she’s been working hard to stay relaxed and do her job,” Johnson-Lynch said. “She had a good hitting night tonight.”

 Herrera’s strong performance came after a poor performance against LSU which saw her only get four kills on 23 attacks. She finished that game with a hitting percentage of -.130.

What’s next?

Iowa State will hit the road again, this time for the Appalachian Invitational in Boone, North Carolina.

The Cyclones will take on the Western Carolina Catamounts at 11 a.m. on Friday, the host school Appalachian State Mountaineers at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and the North Carolina State Wolfpack at 12 p.m. on Sunday.