Now riding a six-match winning streak and seeming to finally hit its stride, Iowa State will have a rematch with Kansas State on Wednesday night in a match that will be broadcast on ESPNU.

When the two teams first met Oct. 3, the No. 20 Wildcats (21-5, 8-5 Big 12) swept the No. 19 Cyclones (16-7, 9-3 Big 12). In that match, Iowa State never seemed to be competitive.

“K-State is very good, and we kind of got served off the court, especially in the first half of the match,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “I just watched that match, and we didn’t do much right. We’re going to have to play a whole lot better and pass a whole lot better than we did the first time around.”

Losing in three sets is something that stings a little bit more for libero Kristen Hahn. Hahn, who was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for the seventh time this season and tied a Big 12 record for most in a single season, had six digs per set in the loss at Kansas State.

“A loss in five is like you gave it your all, but a sweep is just like a slap in the face,” Hahn said. “It’s like ‘wow, we need to do something better, and we just didn’t play well at all.’ K-State did a lot of things right, and we did a lot of things wrong.”

Iowa State was coming off a sweep of TCU at home going into the match against Kansas State but never seemed to find a rhythm. Since losing to the Wildcats, the Cyclones are 8-1 with the only loss coming in a five-set heartbreaker at Texas.

“At that time of the season, I feel like we really just hadn’t reached our potential, and we were kind of beating ourselves in the games we lost,” said outside hitter Rachel Hockaday. “We hadn’t really clicked as a team, but I feel like now it’s a lot different because we’ve found our identity as a team.”

In addition to winning its last six matches, Iowa State has swept its last four opponents and will take that streak into a nationally televised match on ESPNU.

With the match being shown on ESPNU, Johnson-Lynch is hoping her team will draw a big crowd, especially for students who want to be on national television.

“We recognize it’s a chance to showcase your program to people across the country — to recruits, to coaches and to fans,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We don’t get this opportunity very often to be on TV at home on a national network, so we hope to make the most of it.”

For Hahn, the match being on ESPNU is exciting because it will give her family back home a chance to see her play as well as fans around the country. Hahn also talked about the importance of the match being broadcast nationally.

“This is one of our first televised games for the country to see us play and to prove that Cyclone volleyball is still one of the top programs in the nation,” Hahn said.

First serve between Iowa State and Kansas State will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum.