The ISU volleyball team earned a huge win over Colorado on Wednesday night, but for one Cyclone the game had a more personal touch.

Senior Katie Jessen cemented her status in the ISU record books, recording her 1,000th career kill, just the sixth Cyclone to accomplish the feat.

Jessen might not have even known about her accomplishment if not for a friendly reminder from a loved one.

“I actually wouldn’t have even known about it if it wasn’t for my mom,” Jessen said. “She would keep telling me ‘you are this many kills away,’ so it wasn’t really something I was thinking about.”

Many athletes start to press as they near records, but that wasn’t the case for Jessen. The team’s outlook never wavered as she closed in, and it didn’t affect the team, or Jessen, in a negative way.

“If she was trying to reach that goal, good for her, because she played really, really well,” said coach Christy Johnson. “If that was in the back of her mind and it made her play better, next week I hope she goes for 1,200 kills because she played really well.”

Although the win over Colorado was big in many regards, the team still has issues to iron out- namely being consistent. In Big 12 play, the team is yet to have a streak – winning or losing – of longer than two matches.

As the season reaches its later stages, putting together multiple good matches will be important for the team’s postseason goals.

“The second half of the Big 12 [season] is critical because so much can change,” Johnson said.

“I thought we played really well [at Colorado] and we have to continue that for the next month if we want a shot at the tournament.”

The Cyclones are entering a stretch of winnable matches, but they can’t afford to look ahead in the competitive Big 12. The next few weeks will tell a lot about where Iowa State is headed this season.

“Our next two weeks have four big matches, so if we stay concentrated on our goal, we should have four big wins that will help us out in the long run,” Jessen said.

Iowa State can start that consistency as the team travels to Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday night to take on Texas Tech, a team the Cyclones should match up well against. Texas Tech is last in the Big 12 with a hitting percentage of only .202, versus Iowa State which ranks second defensively, holding its opponents to only a .143 hitting percentage.

The Red Raiders rely heavily on outside hitter Philister Sang, who has taken more than 200 more attempts than any of her teammates. Texas Tech sets her from everywhere on the court and Iowa State will have to be ready for her.

“She gets set back row, front row, pretty much from anywhere,” Johnson said. “We’ll just have to keep an eye on her at all times.”

A team that is so predictable with what it tries to run can be easy to prepare for, especially when it matches up so well with the Cyclones biggest strength, blocking. Knowing that Texas Tech wants to set Sang so often should allow the ISU defenders to zero in on her and be ready no matter where she gets the ball.

“Our middle blockers can leave early and get a solid block up,” Jessen said. “Just knowing that we don’t have to concentrate so much on their offense, we can focus more on ourselves and our team and what we have to do.”