The ISU volleyball team was rolling.

Riding a 10-match winning streak highlighted by an upset of No. 3 Texas at home to close out the regular season, the Cyclones (22-8, 13-3 Big 12) were on fire.

But then Selection Sunday happened, when the team was told it would host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament as the No. 15 seed. The following day at practice, coach Christy Johnson-Lynch sensed something was different and her team wasn’t the same.

“We were great against Texas,” Johnson-Lynch said in her final news conference of the year on Monday. “I thought it was our best match of the year and after that we just never played well again.”

Against I-P Fort Wayne and North Carolina, the Cyclones needed five sets to get through each match. Prior to the NCAA tournament, Iowa State had only played two five-set matches against Texas during the entire conference season.

Senior Jamie Straube couldn’t quite put her finger on it either, but said she thought the will to win got the best of them.

“I think it was a little bit of excitement but I think in a way we were putting a lot of pressure on ourselves,” Straube said. “We had high expectations — we’re all pretty driven players and we want to do our very best — so we were on a mission I think but there’s that balance of knowing when to back off and let it happen and when to keep pushing forward.”

In both the first- and second-round matches, the Cyclones put themselves in win-or-go-home situations. Each time, Iowa State won the first set but dropped the second and third to put Hilton Coliseum on edge. The Cyclones went on to win the fourth and fifth sets both times to advance.

Johnson-Lynch noticed the nervous demeanor among her players as well.

When asked about if it was a little too much for the freshmen to handle in their first year, Johnson-Lynch was quick to point out that it wasn’t just the newcomers who were out of their element.

“I think that was everybody,” Johnson-Lynch said. “No one but [Rachel] Hockaday really put up very good numbers against Stanford, so it wasn’t like we had a lot of freshmen and we’re young.”

The Cyclones capped off what Johnson-Lynch called a really disappointing final two weeks with Stanford on Friday. Stanford handed Iowa State its first sweep since Oct. 3 at Kansas State in a match the Cyclones couldn’t seem to find a rhythm.

The Cardinal finished with 49 kills to Iowa State’s 35 and Victoria Hurtt led the Cyclones with seven. With volleyball, offensive and defensive production often goes hand-in-hand and Straube said it was one of the reasons for the low offensive numbers.

“When we’re digging balls and we’re playing tough defense, all our offense just goes with it,” Straube said. “But I think we weren’t playing very good defense and they were coming at us from the outside and then they’d hit us with the middle and they just had so many great attackers.

“I don’t think we ever got into our defensive groove and that kind of affected our offense a little bit.” 

Johnson-Lynch was quick to note it was one of her most memorable seasons she’s ever had at Iowa State.

It’s not an easy feat to make NCAA tournament appearances year-in and year-out but now it’s back to the drawing board and maybe next year the team’s NCAA tournament residency will last a little longer.

“I think most programs would kill to be in our shoes and to have been in the Sweet 16 this many times and to finish, again, in the top-16 in the country on one hand is a remarkable season,” Johnson-Lynch said. “On the other hand I wish we could have played a lot better those last three matches.”