If there was an optimal time to have momentum at any point in the season for ISU volleyball, the final week of the regular season would be it.

No. 16 Iowa State (18-7, 11-6 Big 12) will finish its season off with matches against Texas A&M on Nov. 21, Texas Tech on Nov. 24 and No. 8 Texas on Nov. 27. These final three matches have big implications for the Cyclones heading into the NCAA tournament.

“Every win at this point is so important for seeding once we get to the tournament, obviously we want the easier road,” said middle blocker Debbie Stadick. “It’d be nice to get two road wins and then come back here and beat Texas. That would be huge.”

The Cyclones are coming off a three-set sweep of Colorado (25-13, 25-9, 25-22) last Tuesday at Hilton Coliseum to snap a two-match losing streak to unranked opponents. For a Cyclone team that had lost two demoralizing matches to Missouri and Oklahoma, the victory over Colorado was liberating.

“I think it’s just kind of a little bit of a weight lifted off our shoulders,” said outside hitter Victoria Henson. “Just to get a win was just really exciting that we were able to come out of that rut and just go into the next match with a little bit more confidence than probably what we had after losing those last two matches.”

The grueling three-match stretch will begin Sunday in College Station, Texas, where the Cyclones will take on Texas A&M (13-14, 7-10) at Reed Arena.

The Aggies are coming off a four-set victory over Kansas State (25-16, 25-21, 18-25, 25-22) on Wednesday in Manhattan, Kan.

Junior Kelsey Black led the team with 19 kills while hitting at a .250 clip. The outside hitter currently leads the Big 12 in kills with 428 on the season and is second in the Big 12 in kills per set with 4.13.

The Aggies also lead the Big 12 in service aces with 125 on the season, with an average of 1.26 service aces per set.

Even though the ISU defense has had its share of outstanding performances, coach Christy Johnson-Lynch says slowing down Black will be no simple task.

“We’ve got to do a good job of identifying where she [Black] is,” said Johnson-Lynch. “We can’t ever forget where she is on the court and make sure we always have two blockers up on her. She tends to hit hard and blast balls off the block off the hands so we’ve got to make sure our hands are pressed over the net.”

On Oct. 16, then-13th-ranked Iowa State held off Texas A&M in four sets (25-22, 21-25, 25-11, 26-24) at Ames High School to win its second of a five-match win streak. In that match, junior Carly Jenson led the Cyclones with a career-high 20 kills, along with 10 digs for her seventh double-double of the season at the time.

The Cyclones will continue their regular season-ending stretch Wednesday against Texas Tech (3-23, 1-16) at United Sprint Arena in Lubbock, Texas.

The Red Raiders have been riding an 11-match losing streak that began with a three-set loss to Iowa State (16-25, 16-25, 18-25) back on Oct. 6 at Ames High School.

In a five-set loss to Colorado on Oct. 13, junior Amanda Dowdy smashed a Big 12 season-high of 37 kills — the most of any Big 12 player since Texas A&M’s Laura Jones recorded 38 kills on Nov. 26, 2005.

“She [Dowdy] is a great, great athlete,” said Johnson-Lynch. “She’s appearing at different spots on the court unlike Black. Black will only hit from pretty much one spot. Dowdy will hit out of the back row, different quick slide balls, she’ll hit a lot of different things so we have to make sure we always know where she’s at on the court and that’s a little bit more difficult assignment than it is with Black.”

The final match of the season will be the final regular season match played in Hilton Coliseum for the three ISU seniors, as the Cyclones will try to avenge an earlier five-set loss to No. 8 Texas (19-5, 14-2) on Nov. 27.

On Sept. 29, then-No. 9 Iowa State came up shy of winning their first-ever match in Austin, Texas, as the Longhorns pulled off the upset (25-17, 16-25, 25-12, 15-25, 11-15).

Since then, the Cyclones learned from the mistakes they made in that match and plan on capitalizing as the now take on the role as the underdog.

“I think we played really timid and we weren’t being aggressive when we needed to be in Austin,” said Henson. “So we just need to be aggressive and not be scared of whoever it is that’s on the other side of the net and just play our game.”

The Longhorns lead the Big 12 in total hitting percentage with a .298 clip, boasting two players with the second and third highest individual hitting percentages in the conference.

Middle blockers Jennifer Doris and Rachael Adams are second and third in the Big 12 with a .426 and .414 cumulative hitting percentages, respectively.

For ISU middle blockers, stopping this tandem is key.

“I think it’s going to be really important for us to serve aggressively at them and get them out of their system so that they can’t set those middles as much,” said Stadick. “They’re really quick, so [we’ll be] making sure that we’re fast off the ground and following into transition and not just inside-out.”

For libero Ashley Mass, a victory against Texas would be the perfect ending to an illustrious career.

“That would be a huge accomplishment for our team,” said Mass. “It would be awesome to happen again like last year, that was a great feeling. Getting a win against Texas would be awesome.”