ISU volleyball coach Christy Johnson-Lynch made it clear after a 3-2 loss to Texas on Sunday that her team struggled against a tall and athletic Longhorn frontline that registered 11 blocks in the match.

“We didn’t necessarily click offensively tonight and part of that is their block,” Johnson-Lynch said. “There were definitely some rotations that you looked at and thought, ‘OK who can we set right now,’ because there’s an awfully big block over there.”

The Longhorns held ISU hitters to .168 percent hitting on the night, just the fourth time this season that the Cyclones have been held to less than .200 hitting in a match.

“Sometimes we get stuck hitting the same shot over and over,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We have to be able to hit line, especially because we don’t have 6-foot-3 outsides like Texas does that can hit over the block. We’ve got to be able to hit different shots.”

Those offensive adjustments will be key as the No. 16 Cyclones (12-3, 3-1 Big 12) head to Manhattan, Kan., to take on Kansas State (13-4, 2-1).

Johnson-Lynch has said that Kansas State possesses one of the best swing blocking units in the Big 12.

The Wildcats, who have yet to face a ranked opponent this season, average 2.58 blocks per set, good for fourth in the conference.

The Cyclones average 1.91 blocks per set, which currently ranks last in the Big 12.

“We’ve just got to trust our hitters that they’re going to go up with one or two blockers and do something with the ball,” said ISU setter Alison Landwehr of facing good blocking teams. “When they keep another girl in there who isn’t as tall, you definitely want to go at them. Other than that, just we trust our hitters that they’ll make good decisions.”

KSU middle blocker Taylor Johnson currently leads the team with an average of 1.48 blocks per set, while Kaitlynn Pelger is close behind at 1.14 blocks per set.

Junior ISU middle blocker Jamie Straube, who managed to register 17 kills on just 30 attempts against the Longhorns, said that continuing to attack against a good blocking team is key.

“I’ve been in situations like this for three years now and there’s girls on the court that haven’t been in those kinds of situations,” Straube said. “I just want to be really aggressive and give people the confidence to do the same thing, and let them feed off me.”