After the first set Saturday against Baylor, it looked like the ISU volleyball team would continue its struggle on the road.

The Cyclones (11-7, 3-4 Big 12), however, bounced back with a vengeance in the second set and carried that momentum to a 3-1 (19-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-19) win over the Bears (12-5, 4-3).

“We were a little slow getting started in pretty much every aspect of our game,” coach Christy Johnson said. “In the middle of game one we started making some defensive plays and we seemed to get going defensively and everything else fell into place.”

Iowa State was led by big performances from their leading hitters, Victoria Henson and Jen Malcom. Henson had 18 kills, along with two solo blocks, and Malcom had 14 kills and hit .500 to go along with three solo blocks. Rachel Hockaday and Kelsey Petersen both had eight kills as well and Diane Kieger had seven kills.

“Victoria is becoming a very good blocker against the slide attack and against right side hitters,” Johnson said. “Jen is such a tenacious blocker — she may not always be technically perfect but she never quits on the ball.”

Kaylee Manns had a double-double with 47 assists and 12 digs and Ashley Mass led the team with 19 digs.

Those five solo blocks led to a 10-8 advantage in blocks and that, along with a 66-61 lead in digs, allowed the Cyclones to outhit Baylor .217 to .174. Baylor did have eight service aces to Iowa State’s four, however.

“Baylor is a great team and to go on the road and win at their place in four showed me that we are a legit team,” Johnson said. “Up to this point, we hadn’t been that good on the road so I was excited to see us go on the road and beat a good team.”

Iowa State was 1-5 on the road coming into the match but became the first team to take a match at Baylor, who was 9-0 at the Farrell Center coming into the contest.

“We finally got over the slump we have had on the road,” Manns said. “It was something we were striving to accomplish and we finally did that.”

The Cyclone offense got out of the gate slowly and Baylor took an 8-2 lead in set one. Iowa State clawed their way back to within three at a couple of points, including 22-19, but a hitting error as well as two Baylor service aces from Katie Sanders gave the Bears the opener.

Leading set two 10-9, Iowa State went on a 8-2 run to stretch the lead out to 18-11. The set eventually went to 24-15, but the Cyclones had to fight off a 6-0 Baylor run with a Malcom kill.

Iowa State led set three 16-11, but Baylor once again put together a big run, with this one being 9-1 to make it 20-17 Bears. Malcom took over, although, with three kills, including the clincher in an 8-2 jaunt to finish it.

The Cyclones put the game virtually on ice with a 9-1 run in set four to make it 20-12, after the set was tied at 11. The Bears cut it to four, but kills by Petersen and Malcom gave Iowa State its second road victory of the season.

“We had people come up with kills when we needed them to and pretty much everybody on the team had their moments when we needed a sideout and they got it,” Johnson said. “It was definitely a group effort.”

Iowa State returns to action Wednesday at home against Texas Tech at 6:30 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum.