No. 13 Iowa State came into Wednesday night’s match against Kansas State with a thirst to prove itself following Saturday’s resounding loss to Kansas. Although the Cyclones had a slow start, they still managed to sweep the Wildcats 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-16).

“[The win] feels good just coming off of Kansas and that loss,” said setter Alison Landwehr. “To put a solid game together felt really good.”

Iowa State (12-4, 5-3 Big 12) began the match a little tentatively. This was no surprise as the team has had a trend of slow starts. Both Kansas State (9-10, 3-5 ) and the Cyclones took turns dominating the flow of play, but neither team could find a groove.

By the end of the set, however, the Cyclones had ramped it up, particularly with their blocking. They managed to close strong, taking the set and out-killing the Wildcats 14-9.

Offensive performances by the middle blockers Debbie Stadick and Jamie Straube, who each had six kills on the night, helped out.

“[What] we worked on this week was getting more kills out of our middles and right sides,” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “We did get that out of our middles, and now we need more from our right side.”

Kansas State is known for its blocking abilities, something the ISU coaching staff was well aware of. The Cyclones spent the week prior to Wednesday’s match working on their own blocking in the hopes of counteracting the Wildcats’ abilities at the net.

“I think our blockers did a really good job today,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Much better than they had in weeks, so that’s really encouraging to see.”

As the second set got underway, the Cyclones had some small mistakes that kept the Wildcats knocking at the door. Iowa State still managed to take control of the match, however, with some resonating blocks and kills.

A crippling factor for Kansas State was that its star hitter JuliAnne Chisholm was hitting at -.222 during the second set.

“She usually leads their team in kills,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We were just defending her and blocking her really well, so she probably didn’t feel like she had a lot of options.”

The Cyclones finally had a strong start and mostly maintained their momentum throughout the third set. They ended the night with 11 blocks, an improvement from last week’s eight.

The team was also helped along by senior libero Ashley Mass, who ended the night with 18 digs. Mass is now second all-time in the Big 12 with 2,020 digs.

“It’s definitely been a lot of hard work these past four years,” Mass said. “I’m not really looking into numbers though. When it happens it’s exciting, but I haven’t been counting down.”

With the improved blocking and offense from the middle blockers and the successful shut down of the Wildcats’ go-to hitter, the Cyclones are relieved to put a mark in the win column and move on from their loss to Kansas.

“We were talking in the huddle and we said every win is a good win for us,” said sophomore Jamie Straube. “They all count, so to come in here and get a win in three was really good.”

Iowa State will next face Texas A&M at 3 p.m. Saturday at Ames High School.