In a match it needed to win to become eligible for the NCAA Tournament, the ISU volleyball team could not overcome the staunch Missouri Tiger defense.

The Cyclones dropped a tight decision to the Tigers 3-1 (30-28, 30-26, 24-30, 30-24), in which the defensive numbers were staggering, but Missouri was the team that was able to amount more offense throughout the match.

Iowa State hit its second-lowest hitting percentage of Big 12 conference play at .143, compared to Missouri’s .214. The Cyclones did outblock the Tigers 17-9, but were outdug, 81-75.

Redshirt freshman Victoria Henson led the Cyclones with double figures for kills – 17. Sophomore Kaylee Manns had 53 assists and freshman Ashley Masshad 20 digs, just reaching her sixth 20-dig match of the season.

Missouri won game one with a pair of key runs, one to open the game and then one late to overcome a Cyclone lead. The Tigers went on a 7-0 run with Weiwen Wang’s powerful jump serve to take a 10-5 lead, but the Cyclones whittled that away and took a 26-23 lead late in the game. Missouri finished with a 7-2 run, however, that was punctuated with one of Iowa State’s eight hitting errors in the game.

Game two was much the same with Iowa State’s struggles to crack the rock-solid Missouri defense. The Cyclones had another 11 hitting errors, but were able to hang close with the Tigers because of their defense. Several kills by Na Yang, including the one that ended the game, gave the Tigers a 30-26 victory.

The Cyclones started to get a little bit more in sync offensively in game three to go with the defense that had kept them in the match all night. Down 15-13, Iowa State went on a 10-2 run, which was spearheaded by two aces each by Boeve, who also had four kills during the run, and Manns. The Cyclones rode that to a 30-24 win, in which they held Missouri to a .093 hitting percentage.

The Tigers finished off the match with the strongest offensive effort of the match as far as hitting percentage was concerned. It was the only game in which the Cyclones hit over .200. Late kills by Wang and Yang fought off a Cyclone rally and gave Missouri the win.

The Cyclones are now tied with the Tigers for fifth in the conference and will try to achieve their NCAA Tournament eligibility on Saturday at Kansas.