In late October of 2012, Iowa State began a 10-match winning streak to finish the regular season. The Cyclones are in the same position this year and made it a goal to win out this season.

On a two-match winning streak, the ISU volleyball team (12-6, 6-2 Big 12) will take on Texas Tech (8-16, 1-7 Big 12) on Oct. 30. The Cyclones swept the Red Raiders in their first match up this season.

“We’ve talked a lot about this is when the magic happens,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “This month, these next few weeks are when improvements happen. Where most teams kind of just walk through the rest of the season, we’re trying to really get better.”

Iowa State has won four out of its last five matches including one against No. 22 Kansas last week. The match with the Jayhawks was the Cyclones’ first win against a ranked opponent this season.

Iowa State is currently in a three-way tie for second place in the Big 12 with Kansas and Oklahoma. All three teams have a 6-2 conference record behind a perfect 8-0 Texas.

“Just last week we talked about winning out and that’s our goal for the rest of the year. It’s realistic. [We are] certainly capable of it,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We really have to worry about ourselves. It’s about us getting as good as we can be over the next month.”

In the first match against Texas Tech earlier this month, Iowa State was able to make eight total team blocks. The Cyclones hit .279 and had 46 kills against the Red Raiders.

Iowa State was able to hold Texas Tech to a .039 hitting percentage during the match. Texas Tech is hitting .178 on the season.

After the match against Iowa State, Texas Tech has struggled in Big 12 play and is currently in last place. The Red Raiders have lost five of the last six conference matches, dropping three of them in straight sets.

“[We’ll] probably just keep the same approach, just hit high and do what we’ve been doing with the block,” said sophomore right side hitter Mackenzie Bigbee.

One bright spot for Texas Tech this season has been the play of its libero, Rachel Brummitt. She had 13 digs in the match against Iowa State earlier this year.

Brummitt is second in the Big 12 and 16th nationally in digs per set with 5.29. Her best match this season came against Eastern Washington when she had 29 digs in four sets.

“It’s always good to look at it in a way that you’re going to be facing a new team,” said senior libero Kristen Hahn. “Since the first time that you’ve met them they’ve probably worked on a lot of things, probably changed things as we have.

“It could be a completely different match up. They could have a completely different lineup that we don’t even know about or have different tricks …[It’s] a new challenge to see if we can be better than the first time we faced them.”