The ISU volleyball team came up short of a second Big 12 Conference win of the season, falling to Missouri 3-0 Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.

The Cyclones defeated Texas Tech Oct. 1 to break into the conference win column, but with the loss to Missouri, Iowa State falls to 8-8 overall and 1-5 in Big 12 play. The Tigers improve to 12-3 overall and 5-1 in league action.

“I’m not really sure what happened today,” senior setter Lindsey Chapman said. “It seems we came out with the same fire, but our communication broke down and we didn’t have the same confidence we had against Texas Tech.”

Game one saw a close battle until Missouri reeled off eight unanswered points to lead 16-7. The Tigers went on to win the game 30-21.

It was all Missouri in games two and three as the Tigers won 30-20 and 30-11.

“I was just really disappointed with the way we approached this match,” head coach Linda Crum said. “We had a lot of unforced hitting errors, in game one especially. That got a little bit better in games two and three but, overall, I was just disappointed with how we competed mentally and how we went after things.”

Serving caused problems for the Cyclones during much of the match.

“We talked about the fact that we had two service aces to 11 service errors,” Crum said. “If we are going to be any good at all, we have to have a one-to-one ratio, meaning we can’t have more than one error per ace. Missouri had eight aces to four errors, and that is good. When you are two-and-11, you are basically handing them 11 points.”

Unforced errors on the attack also factored into the loss. Iowa State committed 27 errors compared to Missouri’s 10.

“Missouri fought back and they were a tough team,” Chapman said. “We didn’t react to that. We just took it as they are digging all of our shots, and ‘What do we do now?’ I’m not sure what the breakdown was, but it definitely broke down today.”

Chapman said passing was an area the Cyclones had difficulty with throughout the match.

“When you don’t have passing, you don’t have the option to do much else,” Chapman said. “Our serving wasn’t aggressive. Passing and serving are the two most key fundamentals of the game and when you don’t have those two fundamentals then it is hard to get anything else going.”

Chapman said the match was good in that it showed the season will be full of peaks and valleys.

Crum said gaining a tougher mentality and confidence are going to be key as the Cyclones head into their next match against Oklahoma, which is Wednesday in Norman at 7 p.m.

“We have to learn that once a play is over we have to focus on the next ball. If we have a bad rally, we have to focus on the next one and leave the past in the past,” Crum said.