Fresh off an emotional victory over Nebraska, Iowa State returned home to face Texas Tech on Saturday.

The Cyclones’ defense was able to keep Texas Tech out of sync and held the Red Raiders to a .135 hitting percentage en route to a 3-0 sweep (25-15, 25-17, 25-19).

Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch acknowledged that Saturday’s win was as important as any other win as the last thing the Cyclones wanted to do was let their guard down.

“[After a big victory] we’ve seen other teams in the league relax, and when you relax in this league, you lose,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We talked a lot coming into this match that you can’t relax, once you relax, team’s sneak up on you. I did not think we relaxed tonight, I thought we were ready to play.”

During the first set of Saturday’s match, the Red Raiders came out strong and kept the score close at 8-7. However, in the end, the Cyclones would prove to be too much for Texas Tech. The Cyclones outscored the Red Raiders 17-8 the rest of the set and used a .400 hitting percentage to take the first set 25-15.

Iowa State dominated Texas Tech in the first set. Sophomore outside hitter Rachel Hockaday and freshman middle blocker Jamie Straube led the Cyclones with four kills each, while senior setter Kaylee Manns collected 13 assists and three digs. As a team, Iowa State hit .400 and held Texas Tech to a .213 hitting percentage.

The Cyclones showed no signs of slowing down as they scored six straight points and took a quick 10-3 lead. The Red Raiders answered back by going on a 7-4 lead and cut the score to 14-10. However, Iowa State’s offensive and defensive attack would be too much for Texas Tech to handle and the Cyclones would win the set 25-17.

Iowa State was led by Hockaday, Straube and senior outside hitter Victoria Henson. The trio combined for 12 kills and hit a combined .375 during the set.

The third set of the contest saw the Cyclones hang on to a 10-7 lead before Texas Tech would call for a timeout. The Red Raiders once again struggled to stop Iowa State and eventually fell behind 22-14. Texas Tech could not recover from the deficit and would eventually lose the set 25-19, giving Iowa State the sweep.

Two Cyclones had double digit kills during the sweep: Henson led the way with 13 kills, while Straube had 12. Iowa State had a .296 hitting percentage while Texas Tech hit only .135. Once again, Iowa State was able to out block its opponent, collecting nine blocks during the match.

Texas Tech never did seem to get into rhythm offensively. The Cyclones credited their defensive pressure for allowing them to get into an offensive rhythm of their own.

“When we took them out of their offense, serving wise, they couldn’t really get into a flow,” Straube said. “That helped us because we were getting easier hits back and got into the flow of the game better.”

Another important statistic in Saturday’s game was that the match was a sweep for Iowa State. After an intense five set match on Wednesday, the Cyclones were more than happy to only have to play three sets Saturday.

“We definitely wanted to come out and play hard from the very beginning,” Straube said. “We wanted to get the game over with and not make any errors and play as best as we can.”