IOWA CITY, Iowa — Nine times.

That’s the number of consecutive wins the ISU volleyball team has against the University of Iowa. The No. 25 Cyclones kept their streak alive Saturday, when they beat the Hawkeyes 3-1 in Iowa City.

“I don’t think we really try to think about the rivalry, but you hear about it so much throughout the week,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “But then it does feel like there is a lot more to it. You feel a little bit of that pressure, but we try not to make it more than it is. We still have to play well.”

Iowa State (6-4) came out firing in the first set. It jumped to an early 7-1 lead against Iowa, and ISU sophomore hitter Mackenzie Bigbee had seven of her 16 total kills in that set.

The Cyclones won the first game 25-11, and felt pretty confident at that point in the match.

“We just wanted to come in and play hard and execute on our side,” said libero Kristen Hahn. “We knew we could serve them off the court, and that’s what we did in the first set.”

But the Hawkeyes responded and rallied late in game two, taking advantage of ISU errors. Iowa State fell in that set 29-27.

“They played incredible defense that set,” Hahn said. “They really matched us, and we stayed the same. We didn’t get up there where we needed to be.”

The third set was more of the same story. Iowa had control of the set in the beginning, going on some significant runs early.

“It is what it is. You can either be fine with it, or you can get mad and fight,” Bigbee said. “Everyone decided then that we weren’t going to settle and we just fought through it.”

The Cyclones rallied from behind to win the third set 25-23, and Bigbee added five more kills to seal the third-set victory.

Bigbee dominated in the fourth set and went on an eight-point service rally, which put the Cyclones out of Iowa’s reach. The Williamsburg, Iowa, native has had very little serving experience at the collegiate level but made an impression with her back-row play.

“We’ve been experimenting with her serving a little in practice, and I’ve really been impressed with what she’s been able to do,” Johnson-Lynch said. “She has very little experience back there, but she came up big time tonight. I thought she really took over.”

Iowa State took the fourth set 25-20, and won the match 3-1. The Cyclones haven’t had a loss to the Hawkeyes since 1997 and are leading the all-time series 25-21.

The Cyclones will enter Big 12 play next week when they host Baylor at home.

“We can see little glimpses of brilliance out there,” Hahn said. “But we need to keep working hard and make sure that we can play consistently, so we can beat the teams we need to and beat them in three sets.”