Iowa State was poised for yet another Big 12 sweep with a 24-22 lead in the third set when Texas Tech came back.

Texas Tech outside hitter Meghan Stacy had a kill followed by a block by middle blocker Briana Grant to tie the set 24-24. The Red Raiders were able to avoid a sweep with its 28-26 win in the third.

Texas Tech (8-17, 1-8 Big 12) was able to force a fifth set but Iowa State (13-6, 7-2 Big 12) came out on top. The Cyclones beat the Red Raiders 3-2 (25-20, 25-19, 26-28, 19-25, 15-13) on Wednesday, Oct. 30, for their third-straight win.

“I don’t know that we saw much good out of us tonight,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “I feel like we lost, honestly. You kind of have that same feeling. Not quite as bad as the loss but you kind of have that hangover feeling.”

In the third set, Iowa State had three different match points and it was unable to capitalize on all three of them. Texas Tech was able to score six out of eight points to finish the set up 28-26.

“In the third set, after we’ve won the first two sets, we felt like we were confident enough just to kind of keep it going. I think at that point in time we needed to just keep pushing each point,” said senior middle blocker Tenisha Matlock.

The fourth set was not as close as the previous, and the Cyclones lost, falling by six points. The Red Raiders had three service aces in the fourth set, a point of emphasis for both team.

Texas Tech had 11 total service aces on the night. Texas Tech setter Nicole Hragyil led the Red Raiders with five aces and libero Rachel Brummitt had three against the Cyclones.

Iowa State had 15 service aces on the night and five Cyclones had double-digit aces. Before the match, Iowa State led the Big 12 in aces, averaging 1.68 per set.

“[Texas Tech] served phenomenal. I don’t think we really were expecting it. We just didn’t have our passing game there for a while, and it just shook us up,” said senior libero Kristen Hahn.

Johnson-Lynch said much of the Iowa State’s problems in the third and fourth sets came from “being gassed.” She said the issue might be a result of recent practices.

“We’ll have to think a lot about what we’re doing in practice maybe we’re pushing them too hard, too many jumps. Maybe we need to back off and give them some time to recover. This time of year you want to keep getting better and this was a step back for us,” Johnson-Lynch said.