After being on the road for matches against the top two teams in the Big 12, Iowa State will finally return home.

The ISU volleyball team (11-6, 5-2 Big 12) beat No. 22 Kansas after losing to No. 3 Texas. Iowa State hopes to improve its season record against the seventh-place team, Texas Christian (13-8, 2-5 Big 12), on Saturday, Oct. 26.

“We try to just put pressure on [ourselves] in practice as much as we can,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “I think that we’re at the point that every match is probably pressure for us. We can’t afford to drop any matches that we should win. We need to win everything we can.”

Last season, Iowa State had only seven regular-season losses. The Cyclones already have six losses this year with 10 matches remaining on their schedule.

Iowa State will play six of the matches on its home court, including Saturday’s matchup with TCU. After two difficult road matches, sophomore right-side hitter Mackenzie Bigbee said Iowa State must not take TCU for granted while playing at home.

“It’s always great to play at home because the crowd gets into it so much,” Bigbee said. “Every team is good. You have to respect that. I feel like with TCU, we can kind of focus a lot more on what we’re doing on our side of the court.”

Iowa State and TCU are ranked first and second in the Big 12 in service aces respectively. The Cyclones average 1.55 per set while the Horned Frogs average 1.3 per set.

In its previous match, TCU racked up nine service aces against Oklahoma.

Although TCU is one of the best serving teams Iowa State will face this season, senior libero Kristen Hahn — who ranks sixth nationally in digs per set — said her approach will not be different than in other matches.

“I think serve receive is a very mental game. I think just making sure that mentally, I’m ready to go,” Hahn said. “I like to observe their servers during warm-ups and know who the starting servers are and what their go-to zone is and what they practice.”

Similar to Hahn’s approach to TCU’s serving, Johnson-Lynch said her team’s strategy against the Horned Frogs will not be different from previous matches.

“I think it’s just more about us and handling the ball on our side of the net. It doesn’t seem to matter who we play,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We still have to serve tough. We still have to play defense, handle the ball, make good decisions on attack. That game plan doesn’t change.”