The ISU volleyball team got its chance at redemption against Nebraska on Saturday night, but the Cyclones couldn’t hold on in the spring finale in a 3-1 loss.

It was the team’s last and toughest match of the spring, said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch, but Nebraska was able to set the tone early. The Huskers built off of that momentum as the match progressed and Johnson-Lynch was far from pleased at her team’s showing.

“I thought today, we backed away from the challenge,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We got tentative, made bad decisions, got tentative serving, so I’ve seen a much better team this spring than that, and I was just disappointed that we didn’t really bring it tonight.”

On the offensive end, Iowa State was clicking on all cylinders. Led by Jamie Straube with 15 kills, the Cyclones finished with one kill shy of the Huskers and had one less assist as well.

Straube found her rhythm early and came up with kills throughout the contest to break some of Nebraska’s streaks and helped keep the games competitive.

Setter Alison Landwehr said Straube can be a game changer next season and they need to keep working on connecting and finding the best set for her.

“We’ve been playing together for four years now, and she’s the type of player that I want to get the ball to and she gets after it,” Landwehr said.

Rachel Hockaday and Victoria Hurtt were not far behind with 13 kills each.

The Cyclones have a handful of hitters who can step up and have big games. Straube said while everyone has their off nights, it’s good to know there are others who can come in and fill the void.

“It’s just comforting for the team to know in a situation like that, there’s more than one option,” Straube said.

The difference in the match came on the defensive end, where Landwehr said the team started to show its tentative play Saturday night.

Iowa State lost the blocking battle 15.5 to 4.0, which allowed Nebraska to take control of the match offensively with the momentum built up on the other end.

“There were some times when I set kind of tentative and then our hitters went up and were tipping balls or just not being real aggressive,” Landwehr said. “That’s something we all can work on.”

Whether it is a good or bad thing, improving that tentative mindset is something that does not always happen in the weight room or in practice. It is not something coaches can necessarily teach either, but Hockaday said everyone needs to have that mindset to take chances and fire away.

“I don’t know what it was tonight but I think any time you’re faced with adversity, faced with a big block, it’s just a mindset,” Hockaday said. “You’ve kind of got to turn that on and say, ‘I’m going to go up strong and just swing away’ and see where that takes you.”

Now, the team goes into offseason mode with open gyms and workouts until play resumes in August. With Saturday night considered, Straube said the biggest thing they need to work on is putting together strings of points and starting matches strong.

It was something the team struggled to do against Nebraska and Straube said consistency will really help the team in the fall.

“We’ll do really well for three, four points and then we’ll kind of get stuck in a rotation or we’ll kind of do some silly things just hitting into the block or miss a serve or something like that,” Straube said. “Come fall, I want to be point one, we’re ready to go.”