Christy Johnson must have the Panthers’ number.

Even though Northern Iowa leads the all-time series, Johnson’s teams have defeated the Panthers three straight times and are 6-0 all-time against in-state schools after the Cyclones’ (3-4 overall) sweep (30-23, 32-30, 30-26) Wednesday night before a raucous McLeod Center crowd of 5,124.

Iowa State started out hot, scoring 10 of the first 11 points and finished just as hot, when junior Mary Bisenius ended the match with three straight kills.

The Cyclones had a school-record 83 digs for a three-game match. Sophomore Kaylee Manns led the Cyclones with a career-high 23 digs. The only reason the Panthers (3-4) stayed close throughout the match was their 16 blocks, compared to eight for Iowa State.

Also, midway through the third-game senior Erin Boeve had her 1,000th kill, which puts her seventh on the schools all-time list. She finished the night with 11 kills.

The Cyclones rode that 10-1 start and led from wire-to-wire in game one, partially because of the hot hitting of senior outside hitter Lauren Cummings. Cummings hit .556 and had six kills to go along with Iowa State’s four blocks in the game.

Amy Vos ended a back-and-forth game two with an ace, which gave the Cyclones a 32-30 victory and a two-games-to-none lead. Iowa State gave Northern Iowa a dose of its own medicine by spreading the ball around to several different hitters to stave off a late run of blocks by the Panthers. The Cyclones had four hitters with at least three kills, led by Cummings again with five, to give her 11 for the match.

The match looked headed for a fourth game, when the Panthers led 24-22 in game three. Cummings got hot again, and led the Cyclones on a 8-2 match-ending run. Cummings ended the match with 17 kills, which is two off her career high, which was in a five-game match.