For one night at least, it was just like old times for Erin Boeve.

On the night the ISU volleyball team unveiled the banner for last season’s NCAA Tournament team, Boeve moved back to her old position at middle blocker, with results reminiscent of last year. So far this season she had been playing outside hitter.

Looking more comfortable than she has all year, Boeve led Iowa State to an exhausting five-game win over Missouri, 3-2 (27-30, 30-24, 30-26, 26-30, 16-14) Saturday night at Hilton Coliseum. Boeve led the team with 22 kills, her second most in a match this year, and hit .386, also her second highest of the season.

“It kind of feels a little more comfortable,” Boeve said. “Offensively, I felt pretty good with [setter] Kaylee [Manns]. Johnson and her staff decided to try the switch out after evaluating Boeve’s performance so far this season.

Although she has played well at outside hitter, she has been noticeably less comfortable.

“She is just so dominant in the middle, and, statistically, she wasn’t as dominant at the outside to this point,” Johnson said.

“If you have an All-Conference middle who is only hitting OK outside, you have to think about whether or not that is the right decision.”

The move created some abnormal rotation issues for the Cyclones. Normally, the libero comes in for the middles, but because Boeve has been passing so well this season, Johnson decided to keep her on the court at all times.

To make sure that freshman libero Ashley Mass was on the court at all times, Mass came in for outsides Mary Bisenius and Victoria Henson, who took Boeve’s outside slot.

That different look might be part of the reason the team never got into a rhythm like it has been earlier in the season, Johnson said.

“It was something new, so that might be part of the reason why we weren’t quite in sync,” Johnson said.

Having Boeve back at middle not only changes the defensive scheme, but it alters what the team tries to do on offense.

Instead of being able to set balls outside all the time, the team needs to focus on getting the ball to Boeve in the middle – a much more challenging task.

“You want to force the middle more because Boeve is such a big presence up there,” Manns said. “Balls off the net I need to force to the middle instead of just an easy set to the outside.”

Johnson said the staff will have to go back and evaluate the game before deciding if they will use this rotation again.

For now, they are content to know they have that option, a secret weapon they can use if needed.

“I don’t want say that yet. I don’t want to give that away,” Johnson said.

“It is good to know that if this is something we want to go to, it is there and we are comfortable with it.”