At the start of Saturday night’s Big 12 volleyball matches, Iowa State found itself in a three-way tie for eighth place, with Oklahoma and Baylor. All three teams had 3-11 conference records.

After its 3-1 victory Saturday night in Waco, Texas, over the Cyclones, Baylor is alone in eighth place. Oklahoma lost its match to Colorado, so the Cyclones are now tied for ninth with the Sooners.

Senior Brittany Dalager had a team-high 16 kills and had 15 digs to lead the Cyclones in their loss to Baylor. Sophomore Ashlie McWee added 15 kills. Andrea Vakulya led the Bears with 23 kills.

“I thought we played OK tonight,” said head coach Linda Crum.

“It hurts us that our outsides weren’t as strong tonight. But I thought the play of our middles was terrific.”

Baylor had 17 kills and four errors in Game 1, while Iowa State had 16 kills and eight errors. Baylor took the first game of the match 30-24.

Game 2 went into overtime, and the Bears came out the winner, 33-31. Baylor took a 2-0 match lead into the break.

Iowa State came back in the third game, though Baylor had a match-high 23 kills to the Cyclones’ 17. Iowa State prevailed 31-29.

The Cyclones led 24-16 in the Game 4, but the Bears came back to win the game, 30-28, and the match, 3-1.

Senior Lindsey Chapman had a career-high 58 assists in the match, and contributed seven digs. Sophomore Katie Kruenegel added 13 kills, four digs and five block assists. McWee had 15 kills and three block assists, while libero Dana Koziol had a team-high 20 digs, and Katie Jessen added nine kills to the Cyclone cause.

Crum praised the performances of McWee and Kruenegel.

“They both played extremely well, as did Lindsey [Chapman] — she had a nice match,” Crum said. “She kept us in the flow of the match all night.”

“We were ahead in game four, but lost our momentum and our focus. We did okay on defense, but I thought we could have played much better tonight.”

Iowa State will play its next match at home against Texas Tech Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones beat the Red Raiders earlier in the season, 3-1.