Coming off of two losses to unranked opponents, Iowa State finally got back in the win column, sweeping Colorado 3-0 (25-13, 25-9, 25-22) on Tuesday night. The Cyclones (18-7, 11-5 Big 12) hit more than .300 for the first time in their last seven matches, finishing at .323, while holding the Buffaloes (6-18, 3-15) to a mere .071.

Despite Colorado coming into the match on a eight-match losing streak, ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch was still glad to see her team bounce back from its own losing streak.

“It’s always good to get a win. I think it helps morale a little bit and it helps your confidence a little bit,” Johnson-Lynch said.

After getting out to a 6-1 lead in the first set, the Cyclones continued their first-set success, holding off the Buffaloes and winning their fourth consecutive opener 25-13. The 13 points allowed matches the least the Cyclones have allowed in a first set during the Big 12 season since they started out 25-13 against Oklahoma on Sept. 25. Sophomore middle blocker Jamie Straube paced the Cyclones with five kills on only six attacks.

“I thought we played really well in the first couple sets to come out strong like that and play well through the whole game; I felt like it was really good,” Straube said. “We’ve always known in the back of our minds that we can play that well. But this just proved it that we can really play well if we just focus.”

Cyclone fans got a dose of deja vu as the Cyclones went up 6-1 once again in the beginning of the second set. The Cyclones continued the set with a pair of runs to put them up 10-2 and then 19-6 as they pulled away from Colorado to take the set 25-9. The single-digit score for Colorado was the lowest point total given up by the Cyclones in a set this season.

“Knowing that we can come out and play point-for-point and make those runs is big for us coming up,” said sophomore setter Alison Landwehr.

The third and final set was a bit closer as Colorado got its first lead at 1-0 and then managed to stay within seven points of the Cyclones throughout the set.

A pair of kills from sophomore outside hitter Kerra Schroeder and senior outside hitter Rosie Steinhaus brought Colorado back to 22-20, but then ISU senior Victoria Henson re-entered the match. The ISU all-time leader in kills notched her final three kills of the night, including the match winner, as the Cyclones held off the Buffs in the third set 25-22.

After dominating victories in the opening two sets, Johnson-Lynch wasn’t pleased with her team’s ability to finish the match in the third set.

“One of the things we said was that we want to play three great games or we want play an hour and a half or two hours of high-level volleyball,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We wanted to answer that question at the end of the night, ‘Were we able to do that?’ We were not able to do that tonight, and that’s been one of our issues playing at a high level the whole time.”

The offensive rhythm that Johnson-Lynch saw in the first two sets fell off in the third set as the Cyclones managed to hit only .244 after hitting .357 and .400 in the first two sets.

“I didn’t think we did that in game three; I thought we got really sloppy and just kind of got lazy,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Contributing to Iowa State’s .323 hitting percentage were five players — Henson, Straube, Stadick, junior outside hitter Carly Jenson and freshman middle blocker Hannah Johnson — that ended the match hitting above .300.

Henson led the team with 15 kills on a .480 clip, trailed by Straube and Jenson with eight and Stadick with seven. ISU senior libero Ashley Mass logged her 41st 20-dig match of her career, and Landwehr exceeded her 11.71 assists per set average with 36 assists in the three-set sweep.

Colorado suffered its fourth consecutive sweep and lost its ninth consecutive match on the season. Leading the Buffaloes was the sophomore outside hitter Schroeder, who finished with 13 kills as the only Colorado player in double-digits.

Despite the let-down in the third set, Landwehr is glad to end Tuesday night with the Cyclones’ first win of the season at Hilton Coliseum.

“I think the first two [sets] we came out strong and put them away,” Landwehr said. “Just for us to have a win since we haven’t won in awhile, it just feels good.”

The Cyclones will be back in action Sunday when they travel to College Station, Texas, for a matchup with Texas A&M (12-14, 6-10). First serve is set for 2 p.m.