The ISU volleyball team, coming off a conference loss to Kansas on Wednesday, is hoping to get their second conference win on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Kansas State.

Iowa State, 10-14 overall and 1-14 in the Big 12 conference, played competitively with the Wildcats in their first meeting in which Kansas State won 30-25, 30-24 and 31-29.

Iowa State head coach Linda Crum is expecting her team to focus on ball handling against the Wildcats.

“One of the things you have to do when you play Kansas State, is that your ball handling must be played well,” Crum said. “When we played them the first time, I thought we passed the ball well on the serve receive. We gave ourselves a lot of offensive options. We’re going to focus on their outside hitters more than their middle hitters on Saturday.”

In the first contest, Brittany Dalager and Amanda Craig paced the Cyclones with nine kills and nine digs each. Mandi Harms also made nine kills.

Kansas State had an advantage in kills (51-41) and held Iowa State to a .177 hitting percentage in the contest.

ISU freshman Katie Kruenegel had two kills and two blocks in the first game. Iowa State outblocked Kansas State 12-6 in game one.

In game two, Kansas State outhit Iowa State, .303 to .194. Dalager had four kills and four digs while teammate Renae Pruess had four kills in the game. A battle was expected in the last game as both team couldn’t manage a lead. Harms and Craig had five kills each.

In the match against Kansas, Dalager had 15 digs and nine kills. Harms had a team high 14 kills and nine digs. Senior Sara Stribe contributed with four kills for Iowa State. She also collected 17 assists. Stribe now has 2,666 assists, good for third place on ISU’s all-time list.

Crum said ball handling is something the team will improve going to Saturday’s match.

“We have to serve more aggressive,” Crum said. “We didn’t have a good serving game and we need to take advantage on our opportunities that we receive.”

Crum is liking the way Harms, Dalager, Stribe and Pruess have contributed in the last few games.

“We have goals for every match,” Crum said. “We’re looking to take a big step in the Big 12 conference. We expect to win.””,By Andrew Nickerson

Daily Staff Writer