CEDAR FALLS- A purple wave of Panther faithful flooded the McLeod Center for Wednesday night’s rivalry match, but the record-breaking crowd wasn’t enough to help Northern Iowa (2-2) overcome No. 12 Iowa State (3-0) in a 3-1 (25-23, 25-23, 16-25, 25-23) Cyclone victory in Cedar Falls.

The raucous crowd of 6,126 had plenty to cheer about throughout a tight match, as the Panthers made the Cyclones earn every bit of their second-straight victory at the McLeod Center.

“There are very few places in the country that are going to be able to pull that many people in,” coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. “And when you have this many people and this kind of environment, it puts pressure on the teams that come in, and I guarantee our players were feeling that pressure having over 6,000 people cheering against you.”

Panther fans set a record for the most people to watch a volleyball match ever at the McLeod Center, and the figure was also good enough for the second-best mark in Iowa volleyball history.

The only mark that surpassed it was the 6,705 that witnessed a Nebraska sweep of Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum on Nov. 11, 2007.

“A place like this makes you step up your game,” said senior setter Kaylee Manns. “If you can’t get amped to play in front of 6,000 people you will never be able to, and I think that it makes you play at that much of a high level.”

Iowa State was forced to overcome not only the droves of UNI fans, but also had to play the match without unanimous preseason All-Big 12 pick Victoria Henson. The junior outside hitter was suspended for one match for violating team rules.

Stepping up in her absence were sophomore outsider hitter Rachel Hockaday, who led the Cyclones with 18 kills, and freshman middle blocker Jamie Straube, that chipped in 13 kills and 5 blocks in her first collegiate match away from Ames.

Despite hitting .275 in the first set while committing just two hitting errors, Iowa State started to fade after gaining a 10-1 lead in the second set. The Cyclones also put on a blocking clinic early in the match, gaining a 10-0 advantage in blocks until the Panthers got their first of the match at 18-10 in the second set.

“Although our hitting efficiency was not up to par, I thought that our block and defense probably pulled us through this match,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We are a pretty physical, athletic team, and luckily we are sometimes able to take over games with our block.”

The Cyclones travel to Minneapolis this weekend for the Diet Coke Classic on the campus of the University of Minnesota, where they will play 3 matches this Friday and Saturday.