A win at West Virginia on Nov. 13 was enough to vault the ISU volleyball team back into this week’s AVCA rankings, checking in at No. 24. They then took a step back at home, dropping 3-of-4 sets to No. 22 Kansas. They will try to get back to their winning ways on Saturday against Texas Christian in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Cyclones (17-7, 10-3 Big 12) will face the Horned Frogs (15-13, 3-10 Big 12), who were swept in their last two matches against Oklahoma and West Virginia, both on the road. The last time the Cyclones and Horned Frogs met was at Hilton Coliseum on Oct. 26 when Iowa State swept TCU.

One thing that the Cyclones will try to do better against TCU than they did against Kansas is compete.

“I think we just need to be more competitive,” said ISU sophomore Mackenzie Bigbee. “After the game [against Kansas,] Christy [Johnson-Lynch] was telling us it’s not the end of the world, we have practice again tomorrow, and the best opportunity for us after this is just to come to practice and compete as hard as we can.”

In their last game against Kansas, the Cyclones kept the Jayhawks to just a .195 hitting percentage but were only able to hit .167 themselves. Last time they played TCU, the Horned Frogs hit .245 against the Cyclones while the Cyclones hit .280.

TCU ranks fifth in the Big 12 currently with a .236 hitting percentage. Iowa State is fourth in the conference in hitting percentage allowed with just a .183 average.

Iowa State is the best-serving team in the conference with 1.76 service aces per set but struggled with serving against Kansas as it had 12 service errors to just four aces. ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said their serving needs to be better or they are going to struggle.

“If our serve and pass game isn’t on, we’re going to struggle,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We’ve got to make sure we really address that in practice and get back into it.” The Cyclones will face the Horned Frogs on Saturday at 1 p.m. at University Recreation Center in Fort Worth, Texas.