The ISU volleyball team has been relying on its defense to spark the offense as of late. 

“We definitely use it when we need momentum,” said junior Jamie Straube. “Sometimes if a team is getting a lot of kills on you, it can kind of get you down. But once you get a big block or a big dig in a crucial time, you really kind of feed off that and you use it.

“Once you get your defense working, pretty soon your offense starts working and you use that to propel everything else.”

Iowa State (15-3, 6-1 Big 12) is coming off of one of its best matches of the year defensively when they swept the Baylor Bears 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-18) and kept their spot at the top of the Big 12 last weekend. 

The Cyclones collected a season-high 13 blocks as a team, which was the highest total since a five-set match against Nebraska in 2009.

They also held the Bears to a .023 hitting clip, which is the second-lowest hitting percentage of the year. The lowest came against Iowa, when they held them to .000 clip on Sept. 3 during the Iowa State Challenge. 

“I think it’s kind of where we begin. It’s kind of the foundation of our team, and it’s been our foundation year after year,” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “If we feel like things aren’t quite going right or we feel like we aren’t getting kills the way we want, we always talk about it in the huddle.

“If it takes three or four swings, that’s fine. Just keep defending and dig the ball until we get that good swing that we want.”

Along with the Cyclones coming off one of their best matches, so has sophomore middle blocker Tenisha Matlock. 

Matlock recorded a career-best eight block assists in the match. She also hit on a .444 clip and had eight kills which was tied for team lead.

“I’ve just been staying focused during practice,” Matlock said. “For as long as practice goes I’m just continually trying to focus on getting my hands right, blocking right, doing the right footwork and stuff like that.”

Matlock is playing her first season as a middle-back after moving from outside hitter last season because of shoulder problems. 

“On the outside you take a lot more swings, and it’s very hard on the shoulder,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We saw that last spring she tended to break down pretty quick. We probably wouldn’t have looked at it, but we knew she had shoulder issues, and that forced us to look at it.”

Everyone around the team agrees that Matlock has taken to the position extremely quick due to her tremendous athleticism. Matlock attributes her quick transition help from coaches and fellow players such as Straube and other middle-backs. 

“It helps that she’s 6’3 and really athletic and really quick laterally,” said assistant coach Trudy Vande Berg. “She just wants to learn. She’s always asking questions. She expects to get a kill or a block every time.”

Iowa State is also on its second straight bye week. Last week, players admitted that although it was nice to catch up on school work and to relax, they’d rather be getting ready for a match. 

“That’s definitely how I was feeling at this time last week,” Straube said. “You work on so many things in practice, and then you want to apply them to a game and just get ready to see how it all works.”

Not only did some players admit to becoming antsy, so did the coaches.

“In ways it’s been nice. Practicing a lot can get a little boring,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I think they’re ready to play. We’ve been working on some specific things the past two weeks which is nice to have that time, but at some point you want to see if we can do it in a game.”