The true measure of a team is how it comes back from adversity.

The ISU volleyball team faced just that following an upset at the hands of unranked Kansas on Oct. 9.

Following that game, the team was left with some glaring issues that players and coaches alike knew would have to be fixed before they continued Big 12 play. Going into last week, the team focused on fixing those weaknesses and needed to rebound against lesser opponents in Kansas State and Texas A&M.

“I felt like [the players] understand this is the Big 12, and if you’re not on, you have a chance to lose, especially on the road,” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “I think the staff tried to wake them up a little bit. We were very specific in what we needed to work on, and I think they embraced it.”

At least against Kansas State, they did.

Several teams in the Big 12 are offensively one-dimensional. They have one go-to player who gets them points. For Kansas State, that player is JuliAnne Chisholm.

The Cyclones set out to stop her and did just that. Chisholm failed to get a kill for the first time since 2008, which was before she was a full-time starter.

At least for that match, the ISU women did what they needed to do, and because of that they left with a 3-0 sweep.

“It’s not that we still talk about the loss to KU, but we talk about what led to that loss,” Johnson-Lynch said. “What did we not execute in, that beat us?”

Against Texas A&M on Saturday, though, the things that bit them against Kansas began to creep back up. Starting off matches slowly has been an unfortunate trademark of this year’s team, and that reared its ugly head against the Aggies.

The Cyclones dropped the second set and, in doing so, looked downright sloppy and sluggish. After intermission, they came out and absolutely blew away A&M 25-11 in the third set.

Johnson-Lynch talked after the game about how blocking was an issue against Kansas, and that it almost ruined the team again against A&M.

So what team is it? Is it the dominating, powerhouse team it seemed to be in that third set against the Aggies?

Is it the sloppy team that lost to an inferior Kansas?

The next stretch of games is going to prove one or the other.

“We’re in the middle of kind of a grueling stretch,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It’s Wednesday to Saturday every [week], you know … you feel like you barely get to sleep in Sunday, then you’re studying, and they have to get back to work on Monday. So I think a lot of this is mental at this point. We’ve got to push through this grind until we have another bye and can rest a little bit.”

There’s every reason to believe this team is the former. At least it certainly has the capability to do so.

“[The Kansas loss] put us in perspective that we need to fight for every point,” said setter Alison Landwehr. “Not just every set, but every point, no matter who it is on the other side of the court.”

Teammate and middle blocker Jamie Straube agreed with that sentiment, saying the team was ready to go, and realized that it had to be every time out. She also realized how important it was to come back from the KU loss quickly.

“I don’t think [the KU loss] will ever be put to rest,” Straube said. “I think it was really good for us to be able to respond. I don’t think we did that at KU. So to know we can do it and we can play great puts our minds a little at ease.”

Make no mistake though, the team will remember how that loss felt and use that as motivation throughout the rest of the season. Time and again, players said they know now that no matter who it is, they have to be ready to play.

Fans and coaches have to hope they remember that and keep focused on it no matter what.

I have to believe they will. Seeing the looks in Straube and Landwehr’s eyes when I asked them about how they’ll use the KU loss as motivation, I got the sense that they won’t ever forget it.

This team has shown flashes of not being that head-strong — see: the second set against A&M — but if it can find a way to harness whatever it was it had when it came out for the third set against the Aggies, it will have no problems against anyone.

So what comes next for the Cyclones is very important. They’ve rebounded from a crushing loss in the best way they could. Now it’s time to start punishing people — namely Kansas, who is coming to Ames on Saturday — and playing the way they know they can play.

“It was huge to show ourselves that if we play with that energy and with that enthusiasm every single play that we can beat teams like that 25-10,” Landwehr said. “I think that’s something we need to focus and strive to do every single set.”