All right side hitter Mackenzie Bigbee had heard during the last week of practice was to hit “high hands” to avoid being blocked on her kill attempts.

The Williamsburg, Iowa, native responded to that coaching advice on Saturday night, recording 18 kills with a hitting percentage of .424 as the No. 19 ISU volleyball team defeated Baylor in four sets (25-15, 25-20, 23-25, 25-17) at Hilton Coliseum.

The victory was also the Big 12 conference opener for the Cyclones (7-4, 1-0 Big 12).

ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said not only Bigbee but the two other freshmen — setter Jenelle Hudson and libero Caitlin Nolan — who saw action against the Bears (13-3, 0-1) really steadied out as the match went along.

“It was really fun to see Bigbee have another good night,” Johnson-Lynch said. “As a freshman, you’re not going to have huge nights [all the time] like she did at Illinois a couple weeks ago. She hadn’t had a big night like that [again] until tonight so I think that’s a confidence builder. It’s good to see that again.”

For Bigbee, defense has become a bigger part of her game, picking up more tipped balls and improvements in her blocking to make her more than just an offensive threat.

Now that conference play has started for the ISU squad, Bigbee said she is ready to take on conference opponents with matches being somewhat more frequent than in the nonconference portion of the season.

“The preseason kind of felt like forever, especially since we had our ups and downs,” Bigbee said. “After the Nebraska game, with that being a big upset, I was really excited to get started [with the Big 12 schedule].”

Hudson, who also played in all four sets for Iowa State, tallied one kill, two assists, three aces and 11 digs in the win but struggled in the beginning of the match with miscues on her serves. That did not shake the coaching staff’s confidence in the freshman, however.

“We decided — [when] she was missing her serves — that the challenge is, ‘I’m going to put you in again and you can do this,'” Johnson-Lynch said. “You love to see that. I love to see her go back in and settle down and end well.”

While Hudson didn’t feel uncomfortable playing in the match against Baylor, she did notice something didn’t feel quite right, but it might have been just having an off night.

“My consistency is very important,” Hudson said regarding her serves. “Driving my serve and having energy all the time, that’s a big part of the game. Next game, I will just have to prepare right and focus [a bit more].”

Iowa State’s next event will be against Kansas on Wednesday, Sept. 26, in Lawrence, Kan. The match against the Jayhawks will begin at 6:30 p.m.