The Texas Longhorns volleyball team outhit and outblocked Iowa State in the two teams’ first Big 12 Conference game Sept. 17 at Austin, Texas.

Hitting 44 kills and recording nine blocks, the Longhorns defeated the Cyclones 3-0, dropping Iowa State’s record to 7-4 overall and 0-1 in league play. Texas improved to 5-4 overall and 1-0 in conference.

“We didn’t play well and I think some of it was that we were a little intimidated because it was our first Big 12 match,” senior Dana Koziol said.

The Cyclones kept each game close for a while, but the Longhorns managed to pull through with wins of 30-17, 30-22 and 31-29.

“I’m disappointed from the standpoint of I didn’t think we competed at a level we have been competing at,” head coach Linda Crum said. “In each of the games, we definitely competed to a point, but when there was any kind of push, we didn’t respond to that push and fight through it.”

Crum said that to respond to those “pushes” the team will have to believe that it is going to be successful in the situation and win.

“We were in Game 1 until about point 11,” Crum said. “Then we became very nonaggressive from there.”

The Cyclones led 18-14 at one point in Game 2, but Texas fought back to tie the game.

“From that point, where it re-tied, we lost some of our momentum,” Crum said.

Iowa State led Game 3 28-23 before the Longhorns went on a 8-1 run to take the game and the match.

“I thought we did a great job in Game 3 until we hit about the last five points,” Crum said.

Koziol said confidence was a factor in not being able to maintain the leads and win the games.

“We just relaxed a little bit and started being tentative, instead of being aggressive and just finishing,” she said.

Iowa State had 36 kills and three blocks for the match.

Junior Brittany Dalager paced the ISU offense with 12 kills.

Sophomore Amanda Craig had 20 assists for the Cyclones.

Mira Topic led the Longhorns with 13 kills.

“They are big in terms of what they put up at the net,” Crum said. “We didn’t hit as well as we could, but I think more of an issue is what they did to us offensively and our ability to block and defend.”

Hitting, blocking and defense are all things Koziol said the team still needs to improve on.

“Our passing was pretty good and our defense was okay, but it needs to be better along with terminating on the attack and blocking,” Koziol said.

The Cyclones now head into their conference home opener Saturday night when they host the Baylor Bears at 7 p.m.

“I think maybe we needed [the loss] as a wake-up call,” Koziol said. “We are going to be ready to go on Saturday.”

Iowa State’s only conference win last season came in a 3-0 win over Baylor, Oct. 26 in Waco, Texas.

Baylor is 6-6 this season and is coming off a 3-1 loss to Missouri.

“I think we are all very excited,” Koziol said. “Baylor is a team that we can beat and we should beat. It should be a good game.”

Baylor is led by senior Tisha Schwartz, who currently ranks fourth in kills in the Big 12.

“They have a couple key players who we can match up with and take care of,” Crum said. “I think it is going to be a very good, very competitive match.”

Being scrappy on defense and playing all out are what the Cyclones have to do, Koziol said.

“We have to bring energy to the games every time,” Koziol said. “Getting excited, feeding off of each other instead of relying on the crowd or other things to get us pumped up — we just really need to work on that.”