As a team, the Cyclones could not seem to get a rhythm, or keep one throughout the three sets against Nebraska on Friday night at the Qwest Center. An energized Husker lineup ran onto the court prior to the match as over 8,000 fans stood on their feet screaming at the top of their lungs. Iowa State was unable to overcome the Nebraska domination, falling in three sets (25-11, 25-19, 25-22).

It seemed every time Iowa State would creep back into the game, or even take the lead Nebraska would have an answer. Along with Nebraska’s dominating performance, offensively and defensively, the 22 attacking errors by Iowa State didn’t help the Cyclones’ cause.

“Our middle blockers did a great job of shutting down their middles,” said Nebraska coach John Cook.

The defense in the back court was sloppy for the Cyclones, as numerous times Iowa State players found themselves standing as a Husker kill landed on the floor. In the serve receive, Iowa State seemed out of sync as well.

“We certainly lost the serve and pass game, I thought that was pretty lopsided,” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “It seemed like they were in system, the ball was going right to the setter every time making it very difficult for our block, while we couldn’t pass the ball off the net and became pretty predictable in our offense.”

Iowa State’s only beam of sunshine came from junior outside hitter Victoria Henson, who seemed to get in the groove after a rough start in the first set. Henson finished with 13 kills to lead the Cyclones and a hitting percentage of .321.

As a team, Iowa State’s offensive performance was the lowest of the season, hitting just .096, the first time the Cyclones have hit under .100 the entire season. A total of 27 errors were committing, both attacking and serving combined, which accounted for part of Iowa State’s low performance on the attack.

“I thought we ran into a really hot team,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I thought they played almost flawless tonight.”

Nebraska was led by Lindsey Licht’s 10 kills, and both Brooke Delano and Kori Cooper chipped in nine for the Husker attack. As a team, Nebraska hit a whopping .324, including a .441 percentage in set one. The Huskers committed just 10 hitting errors in comparison to Iowa State’s 22 and Husker setter Sydney Anderson posted 37 assists.