Last season, the ISU volleyball team won just four of their final nine matches, including 3-2 loss to Creighton in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

This year’s squad is trying to take advantage of difficult lesson’s learned down the stretch of the 2010 season.

“At this point last season was when we kind of went down hill a little bit, but this year we’re still on the rise and getting better,” said senior outside hitter Carly Jenson. “Our practices and games have been so much better. You can tell people still want to be here and everyone is feeling really good.”

The No. 13 Cyclones (19-4, 10-2 Big 12) are coming off back to back wins over No. 25 Oklahoma and 3-0 victory against Texas Tech, their 11th sweep of the season.

As the Cyclones enter their last four Big 12 conference games of the season, coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said she does not think her team will fall victim to complacency.

“We’ve got some players on our team that are pretty driven and have really tried to take charge of practices and keep them intense and keep people working as hard as they can,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It gets hard this time of year because you’re just tired, you’re worn down, but I feel like practices are as good as they’ve ever been. I think we practiced better last week maybe than we even played.”

Johnson-Lynch mentioned that junior middle blocker Jamie Straube as someone who makes sure everyone continues to play at a high level.

Carly Jenson has also had a re-emergence on the offensive end, leading the team in kills the past three matches, including a 25-kill match against Oklahoma in which she averaged 5.57 kills per set.

“Carly, mid-conference, didn’t necessarily have a slump, but her numbers took a dip,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Now we’re moving her around a little bit, and her numbers are starting to come back up.”

Straube said that it will be important for this year’s squad to deal with the pressure of expectations as they enter the postseason.

“I think last year we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. I know I put too much pressure on myself trying to do everything perfectly,” Straube said. “Now I just go and figure out how I need to play and how I need to motivate everyone else.”

The Cyclones will be back in action this Wednesday when they go on the road to take on Missouri at 6:30 p.m.