Saturday’s four-set loss to Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., was a sobering moment for an ISU volleyball team that had previously compiled a 53-match win streak against unranked opponents.

“We were all pretty upset that we lost, because we knew that we could have played better,” said senior Victoria Henson, who had a match-high 22 kills. “We just weren’t prepared to come in and just play for every single point as hard as we could.”

The 13th-ranked Cyclones (11-4, 4-3 Big 12) will be trying to improve their performance and avoid dropping two-straight matches as they host Kansas State (9-9, 3-4) on Wednesday night at Ames High School.

In their last match, the Wildcats were swept by No. 11 Texas in Manhattan, Kan., after giving up early momentum to the Longhorns. They have also dropped matches against Oklahoma, Missouri and Kentucky — all of whom have experienced losses to the Cyclones.

“I think they block pretty well,” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “We have to anticipate that they’re going to block the way teams have been blocking us lately, which is double up on our outside attackers, and leave our other hitters one-on-one.”

The Wildcats pride themselves in their blocking ability as their showcase strength, averaging 2.59 blocks per set, which is second in the Big 12 behind only No. 3 Nebraska.

As of late, their opponents have been trying to force the Cyclone middle blockers and right-side hitters to attack one-on-one, slowing their offensive production down a bit.

“We’ve got to make sure that we are ready for a game plan like that again, that they’re going to block our outsides, double up on them, maybe even triple up,” Johnson-Lynch said.

This style of play may present a lot of pressure to the Cyclones’ middle blockers — junior Debbie Stadick and sophomore Jamie Straube.

“If K-State runs a lot of quick attack and if you just never know what their setter is going to set, it throws your middle off balance a little bit,” Johnson-Lynch said. “They’ve got to be ready to move everywhere.”

Outside hitter JuliAnne Chisholm leads the Wildcats in kills this season with 223 — just four short of Henson’s cumulative total of 227 so far on the season — while averaging 3.38 kills per set.

“She’s a little bit smaller, but she’s got a great vertical jump,” Johnson-Lynch said of Chisholm. “She’s just a really nice athlete. We’re going to try to find a way to contain her.”

Iowa State’s right-side hitter Kelsey Petersen has improved her play over the past two matches, registering 16 kills while hitting at a .316 clip.

The junior from Kearney, Neb., has seen a dramatic improvement after averaging just .170 with 22 kills over the span of four matches before last Wednesday’s sweep of Texas Tech.

“I came to realize that I need to start playing within myself,” Petersen said. “I’m not going to go out there and hit like Vic or Carly [Jenson], I need to just play for myself.”

Johnson-Lynch noticed some weaknesses in the Cyclones’ loss to Kansas that she emphasized as areas of improvement for the match against Kansas State.

“Our blocking numbers were too low against Kansas and they have been for a little while, so we’re going to try to address our blocking numbers, just block more balls per game,” Johnson-Lynch said. “That needs to be addressed, and we’re going to be spending a lot of time in practice on blocking.”

Regardless of what position the offensive attacks come from, Johnson-Lynch is also stressing the importance of increasing offensive production from any position.

“Obviously Victoria is putting up crazy good numbers, so we’re pretty good there. Carly has been playing really well and putting up nice numbers,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We just need a little more offense from a couple more spots.”

The match starts at 7 p.m. at Ames High School.

“We really need this win because after the loss on Saturday. We need just to rebuild ourselves and get our confidence back up,” Petersen said. “A win Wednesday is very crucial for us.”