The ISU volleyball team may have been its own worst enemy Saturday.

The Cyclones (11-8, 5-4 Big 12) committed a slew of errors against the 16th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats (14-5, 6-3 Big 12) and lost, three games to zero (30-24, 30-25, 30-27), in front of a season-high crowd of 2,154.

Iowa State played well in stretches and led in each of the last two games but could not sustain it over the long haul.

Coach Christy Johnson said maintaining that high level over a long period of time is something the Cyclones need to work on.

“Against a great team, you have to do it all 30 points,” Johnson said. “We talked about getting a little bit ticked off and using that to come back and play a little bit harder on Monday.”

Senior outside hitter Lauren Cummings led the Cyclones with 13 kills and junior middle blocker Jen Malcom had 12. Sophomore setter Kaylee Manns had a double-double with 36 assists (her third-lowest total of the season) and 11 digs, while freshman libero Ashley Mass led Iowa State with 18 digs.

Iowa State was outdug for only the fifth time this season, and Johnson said the passing struggles contributed to the Cyclones being outhit .237 to .199.

“Passing-wise, we pulled Kaylee off the net quite a bit, so that makes your offense a lot more predictable,” Johnson said. “They did a good job of camping on the hitters they thought were going to get the ball, and it’s hard to put the ball away when you have two big people staring at you.”

Manns said getting used to the height of the Kansas State block was tough.

“They were a really good blockingteam in general,” Manns said.

“We were trying to move the ball around, and we never really found, like, a go-to hitter.”

In the first game, the Wildcats took an early lead, fighting off every Cyclone run to win 30-24.

The errors started to bite Iowa State in game two, when it held the biggest lead – by either team – at 20-17. The Cyclones committed a hitting error to tie the game at 20 and, when the game was tied at 22, committed a service error and four hitting errors over the next seven points.

Iowa State led early in game three, but Kansas State came back to take an 18-14 lead. The Cyclones scored seven of the next eight points with two aces and two kills by Malcom to pull ahead 21-19. Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Nataly Korobkova helped the Wildcats finish off the match, though, with two kills and an ace to give the Wildcats a 30-27 win. Korobkova tallied 18 kills to lead the Wildcats.

Senior defensive specialist Laura Cady said the Cyclones were not aggressive enough.

“We just needed to come out with more energy,” Cady said. “We have to learn to play with a team where the ball is going to come back several times and just keep going from there.”

The sweep drops Iowa State into a tie for fifth in the conference with the Missouri Tigers, while Kansas State takes sole possession of fourth place.

The Cyclones will try to get back on track against the Colorado Buffaloes (5-11, 0-9 Big 12) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Boulder, Colo. Colorado is winless in the Big 12 after losing 3-1 to the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday in College Station, Texas.