The third time was definitely not the charm for the Cyclones against Big 12 rival Nebraska.

While both teams are quite familiar with each other, it seems as though Nebraska was the team predicting the Cyclones’ every move while Iowa State had a hard time figuring out the Huskers’ game plan.

“When you’re playing a team a third time, you start knowing what they’re going to do. Blockers start seeing who’s hot and got after those hitters,” said senior setter Kaylee Manns. “Nebraska did a great job, they’re well coached and all the girls just did a great job in knowing what we were going to do in a lot of situations.”

Struggles on both offense and defense, along with below average individual performances, led to the loss. As a team, Iowa State hit a season low .096, one of the many places the Huskers held the advantage. But if there were ever an indication of the Cyclones slumping on offense, Manns’ 23 assists was her lowest total assists for a match of the season.

“I think we got to [Manns],” said Nebraska coach John Cook. “I think she wasn’t sure, things weren’t working for her very well and that was the biggest thing, we got to her a little bit.”

Defensively, Nebraska did a tremendous job against the Cyclones’ main offensive weapons, outside hitters Rachel Hockaday and Victoria Henson. Hockaday finished with eight kills but committed six attacking errors, leading to a .056 hitting percentage.

Henson was one of the few bright spots offensively, hitting .321 with 13 kills.

It seems the Huskers prepared for both Henson and Hockaday. In three games, the Huskers have held the duo to a .177 hitting percentage.

“[Junior right-side hitter Lindsey Licht] did a great job on shutting down Hockaday and we basically shut down all [Iowa State’s] hitters except Henson,” Cook said. “Out left sides did a great job, they killed us at Iowa State behind the setter and [outside hitters Hannah Werth and Tara Mueller]  did a great job on [sophomore right-side hitter Kelsey] Petereson.”

In contrast, Iowa State had a difficult time defensively against the Huskers. The Cyclones allowed a .324 hitting percentage and had a difficult time blocking any of the Huskers’ attacks, allowing the Huskers to get some big leads and go on huge scoring runs.

“We would get a couple points going, maybe be ahead and then they would just go on a five to six point run. That takes momentum away from your team so they just finished every time,” Manns said.

Friday’s match was disappointing and not quite how the Cyclones would like to have ended the season. But in a season filled with highlights including setting new highs in wins, consecutive victories and highest finish in the conference standings, players find it difficult to be completely upset.

“It’s disappointing to lose but we just have to look at our season and how much we accomplished and how good we did,” said junior libero Ashley Mass.