With 21 total lead changes and 38 tied scores, the match on the court was as tight as the seating off the court in the hot and humid Ames High gymnasium.

Iowa State had a chance to put the match into a fifth set with a 24-20 lead late, but the Huskers rallied and took advantage of a few Cyclone mistakes to pick up a win (25-22, 26-24, 25-23, 28-26).

“Just a few points here or there and we would have been right there,” said sophomore setter Alison Landwehr.

Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch agreed.

“We had little opportunities here and there, we just didn’t quite convert,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Defense (almost) wins rivalries

With four players above 6-foot-3-inches in the Nebraska front line, including a pair of 6-foot-5-inch right side hitters, the Cyclones had their work cut out for them on defense.

With the ISU offensive efforts coming up short in the 25-22 first set loss, the Cyclones turned to their defense to help them gain momentum.

“I thought at times we just played really nice defense,” Johnson-Lynch said. “And obviously when we start playing some really nice defense we can transition it and make some runs.”

Outside hitter Victoria Henson made a pair of amazing saves which highlighted the defensive effort for the Cyclones.

With the match at 20-19 in favor of Nebraska, Henson nearly hurdled the Cyclones bench to save an errant dig. In the third set, Henson traveled out of bounds onto the Nebraska side to preserve the volley. Both saves transitioned into multi-point runs for Iowa State.

“There were some stretches there where we ran three, four or five points just because we kept digging the ball,” Johnson-Lynch said.

“I think our defense came with just wanting it so bad,” Landwehr said. “We were just trying to get after as much as we can, we had some girls make some amazing plays tonight and I think that’s what kept us in there.”

The Cornhuskers may have come out on the winning end of the scoreboard, but defensively the Cyclones out-dug the them 73 to 48.

“It’s great that we can say that defensively,” Jenson said. “I think it takes them out of their rhythm, so if we keep outdigging them it just frustrates them more and more.”

Jenson was second on the team with 17 digs behind senior libero Ashley Mass, who had 18. Landwehr finished with 12 and senior outside hitter Victoria Henson and junior defensive specialist Caitlin Mahoney ended with 11 apiece.

Cyclones struggle on the right side

Johnson-Lynch has lauded junior right side hitter Kelsey Petersen following numerous matches this season, and for good reason. The Kearney, Neb., native was hitting .333 heading into Wednesday night’s match and had hit above .500 in five of eight matches this season.

However, early on in the Nebraska match, Petersen struggled, hitting -.222 in the first set. Johnson-Lynch credited Petersen’s slow start in large part to the right side hitter’s expectations of herself coming into the match.

“I think these kind of matches are always tough for someone from Nebraska,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Sometimes you want so badly to play well that you try too hard.”

Matlock entered for Petersen after her struggles in the first set. Following Matlock’s first kill, chants of, “She’s a freshman,” echoed from the student section.

“I was pumped and it really got me going because I was scared and skeptical at first,” Matlock said.

Petersen re-entered the match at 15-13 in favor of the Cornhuskers in the third set but didn’t get another chance to swing at the ball. Johnson-Lynch spoke with Petersen following the match for a few minutes as the coach stressed to just “play within herself.”

“Sometimes it’s for Vic [Henson] sometimes its for Carly [Jenson] sometimes its for Kelsey [Petersen] so we feel like at some point she’s going to have to come and make a contribution,” Johnson-Lynch said of Matlock. “We don’t know where we are going to need her but we know we’ll need her throughout the season.”

Serving into the net

Henson led the match in kills with 19, but at the end of the match, with the score knotted up at 26, it was the senior who would be relied on at the service line, not at the net.

The Cyclones had already given up a set point at 24-20 and at 25-24 but following a service error from Nebraska’s Sydney Anderson, Henson had a chance to give the Cyclones the match.

Unfortunately for the returning All-American, her serve came off on the wrong part of her hand, falling into the net and giving Nebraska the eventual final serve of the match.

There was a total of four serve errors within the last nine points, two each for both teams.

“It’s alright. I mean, you miss serves, but you just have to brush it off and go into the next game and just not worry about it,” Henson said.