After being forced to battle from several slow starts the past few weeks, the ISU volleyball team was finally able to kick its recent bad habit on Wednesday night.

The Cyclones (14-9, 8-5 Big 12) were quick out of the gate and had complete control of the Buffaloes (5-17, 0-14) from start to finish in a 3-0 sweep (30-23, 30-17, 30-20) of the only winless team in the conference, in front of 721 fans at Hilton Coliseum.

“Getting out to a fast start makes a huge difference,” said coach Christy Johnson. “It really helps set the tone and lets the team get into a rhythm so they can relax and not have to play catch-up the whole game.”

Iowa State’s stout defense continued its dominance against Colorado by limiting the Buffaloes to a .167 hitting percentage, while outblocking (10.5-4.0) and outdigging (50-31) the Buffaloes and holding three of their players below .000.

Iowa State saw a balanced offensive attack spread at least eight kills to four different players on a .358 hitting percentage.

Senior Erin Boeve led way with 14 kills on a .684 hitting percentage, which ties the fifth best single-match mark in school history. Her six service aces also set a school record for aces in a match during the rally scoring era.

“This is definitely a team you want to get ahead of early on,” Boeve said. “They have the talent to hang around for the whole match, which is exactly what they did the last time we played them.

“But the fast start really got our offense going earlier tonight than it had been the past couple of weeks.”

The Cyclones also experimented with a new rotation against Colorado by having outside hitter Lauren Cummings play in the back row.

This is a position she hasn’t been in since transferring to Iowa State from Northwest Missouri State prior to her junior year and she did a great job standing in.

“Lauren has been playing great defense in practice,” Johnson said. “And we just wanted to see if playing her back there could be an option for us. Lauren is so competitive and works so hard, and if she’s given an opportunity like this she’ll take it and run.”

Cummings didn’t miss a beat offensively in the transition as she tallied 11 kills on the match, while giving an outstanding defensive performance with a match-high 13 digs, marking her first double-double of the season.

“A lot of schools have players with a back row attack, which is something we’ve never really had,” Cummings said. “So we just had a trial run to see if it could work out, and after playing a few points I got a lot more comfortable back there.”

Freshman Ashley Mass extended her streak of matches with double-figure digs to 16 by notching 13, and setter Kaylee Manns registered her team-high 10th double-double with 39 set assists and 10 digs.

Colorado junior Lauren Schaefer, who leads the Buffaloes with 3.11 kills per game and a .360 hitting percentage, was on the bench but did not see any time on the court against the Cyclones.