The ISU volleyball team led Colorado two sets to one Saturday but dropped the final two sets, losing 3-2 (22-25, 26-24, 21-25, 28-26, 15-12). The loss makes the Cyclones 0-4 in five-set matches this season.

“It was a tough match to take,” head coach Christy Johnson said. “We had opportunities, and we just didn’t grab them.”

The Buffaloes started out the fifth set up 5-3, but Iowa State was able to take the lead at 7-6 with a Debbie Stadick kill. Colorado scored five of the next seven points to take the lead at 11-9 but the Cyclones tied it at 11. Jen Malcom tied it again at 12 with a kill, but that was the last point Iowa State would score in the match, as Colorado scored the next three.

The Cyclones outhit the Buffaloes 0.247 to 0.238 in the match and outdug them 78 to 71, but Colorado had a big advantage in blocks with 17.5 to Iowa State’s 10.

“Colorado blocked us very well — that was probably their career night,” Johnson said. “We did have a couple of people that had good nights, but we tended to make errors at the wrong time.

Iowa State trailed 22-16 in the first set but got three straight kills followed by three straight blocks from Kelsey Petersen and Diane Kieger to start a 9-0 game finishing run.

The Cyclones had two game points in set two at 24-22 after back-to-back kills from Victoria Henson. Henson had seven kills in the game, but the Buffaloes were able to find a way to score the final four points of the set to knot the match.

Hockaday dominated the third set with ten kills to help her team to a 25-21 win. Iowa State hit 0.442 in the set to take the lead.

The Cyclones held three more match points but Colorado fought off each one and forced the decider with another extra-points victory.

Henson had 30 kills in the match, with a hitting percentage of 0.321, becoming the first Cyclone player to accomplish this feat in over 300 matches. Hockaday also had a career-high 20 kills and Malcom had 13 kills, despite still being affected by an ankle injury. Stadick had six kills and hit 0.600 in the match.

Kaylee Manns had a season high 72 assists and eight digs. Ashley Mass bounced back from her first match without double-digits in digs in over a year and tied her career high with 32.