After being swept by No. 11 Texas last Tuesday, the ISU volleyball team played host to another ranked Big 12 foe when No. 17 Missouri visited Ames on Saturday. Despite improving substantially from their loss to the Longhorns, the Cyclones still ended Saturday with a similar result, dropping the match 3-0 (30-26, 34-32, 30-22).

“For the most part we did what we needed to do,” said coach Christy Johnson. “I thought our outsides took some nice swings today. We still have things to work on but I think we played harder and better than on Tuesday night.”

The Cyclones, who hit just .156 in the match, dropped to 11-6 overall and 3-4 in the Big 12 Conference. Katie Jessen led the ISU offensive attack with 13 kills, and Nicole Lorenzen and Lauren Cummings added eight kills each. Katie Churm led the team defensively with 18 digs.

The Tigers outblocked the Cyclones 15.5-11 and hit .204 while improving to 13-4 on the season and 7-1 in Big 12 play.

The Cyclones grabbed an 18-16 lead in game one, but could not hang on as the Tigers scored eight of the next nine points to take back the lead at 24-19. The Cyclones closed the gap to 25-24 on a Missouri error, but the Tigers responded with a 5-2 run to take the game 30-26.

Missouri was hot out the gate in game two, jumping out to a 3-0 lead before extending its lead to as high as seven. But the Cyclones clawed their way back, bringing the game within two after they got four straight points to close the gap at 24-22.

After two more Missouri points, the Cyclones went on a 6-0 run highlighted by a pair of kills by Jessen to grab their first lead of the game 28-26. Missouri answered back with three consecutive points, but the Cyclones held off the Tigers on game point to knot the game at 29.

The teams battled their way to three more ties and three lead changes in the next seven points, but the Cyclones were unable to hold on as a service ace from Missouri’s Nicole Wilson put the game away for the Tigers.

The Cyclones hung tough in game three, but were outmatched by the powerful Tigers as they hit .316 and recorded 18 kills on their way to a 30-22 victory.

Iowa State will hit the road for its next two games, traveling to Colorado (9-2, 5-2 Big 12) on Wednesday and Texas Tech (9-7, 2-5) on Saturday. The Cyclones have recently had success away from the Hilton Coliseum, and currently boast a two-game road winning streak after beating Kansas State and Kansas last week.

The Cyclones look to shrug off these losses to two very tough teams and find the winning way again this week.

“Teams like Missouri don’t make many mistakes,” said senior libero Katie Churm. “So if we just worry about what’s happening on our side of the court and the mistakes we make, we’ll be able to win these next few games.”