In a much different outcome than when the two met earlier this season, No. 19 Iowa State pushed its win streak to seven against No. 20 Kansas State Wednesday night.

The Cyclones (17-7, 10-3 Big 12) put on a hitting clinic in the first set and rode the momentum to a 3-1 victory at Hilton Coliseum.

Freshman Andie Malloy continued her recent success with six kills in the first set. Fellow freshman Mackenzie Bigbee wasn’t far behind with four and the duo helped their team hit a combined .517 in the 25-14 win. The Wildcats weren’t as fortunate, hitting just .036 in the first stanza.

In the second, Kansas State stepped its game up while it was the Cyclones who took a significant step back.

While Malloy increased her match kill total to 10, the rest of the team faltered. Despite a late comeback, Iowa State’s .109 hitting allowed the Wildcats (21-6, 8-6) to close out the 25-23 victory.

Unlike earlier in the season, the Cyclones managed to bounce back from the loss and win the third set 25-18 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

Malloy once again added another four kills to her 18 total Wednesday night. While Iowa State only hit .140 in the set, Kansas State finished with .026, its lowest of the match.

Christy Johnson-Lynch and co. closed out the victory in the fourth set in front of the ESPNU audience by a score of 25-15. Libero Kristen Hahn led with 23 digs but was supported with 16 from Caitlin Nolan and 12 from Alison Landwehr. The defense also limited Kansas State to a .072 hitting percentage overall, the Wildcats’ lowest of the season. 

Iowa State has three matches left in the regular season with the next coming against Baylor on Saturday in Waco, Texas. The afternoon start is set for 1 p.m.

Quotables

Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch on her feeling at this point in the season- “I’m really excited because I feel like we’re playing well but we’re also improving. We’ve still got some room for improvement but we’re on the right path.”

Johnson-Lynch on team’s reaction to playing on ESPNU- “I think they were very focused in practice, a little more serious than sometimes they are. I think they’re just excited, really excited to do something on national TV.”

Andie Malloy on her career high 18 kills coming against a ranked opponent- “It feels good. [I’ve] been working on this outside hitter position and it’s all starting to click finally so it feels great.”

Kristen Hahn on the defense keeping Kansas State so contained- “You could just tell they were so frustrated. They subbed in so many different players and I think the biggest thing was we got [Kaitlynn] Pelger out of the game and she wasn’t allowed to go off and that’s what the difference was.”