Experience and victories have been hard to come by lately for the Iowa State women’s volleyball team. Taking on two ranked opponents over the weekend proved to be a difficult challenge for the Cyclones.

ISU dropped matches to both the 20th-ranked Colorado Buffaloes and the 17th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats and saw its record slip to 2-19 and 0-14 in the Big 12 conference.

Despite much improved play and a strong Game 3 effort, the Cyclones were unable to gain the win vs. Colorado Friday night at Hilton,falling 15-8, 15-9, 15-13.

Iowa State held a 11-9 advantage in Game 3 before Colorado responded with three straight points to go ahead before closing out the game and the set.

“The Colorado match was a pretty good one for us. We played really well,” said junior middle blocker Stacey Nicks.

“Everything just seemed to come together. It’s really hard to play tough teams like that, but we are getting so much better.”

Nicks led the offensive attack for the Cyclones, pounding 12 kills for a .310 hitting percentage. True freshman Sarah Rollman added eight kills in the defeat and posted a team-high 10 digs.

“We just couldn’t quite finish things off in this match,” Rollman said. “It was definitely an improvement from our past games. The improvement we are making is starting to show.”

ISU outblocked its opponent for the fourth consecutive match, 10-5. Freshmen Mandi Harms totalled five blocks while senior Mandi Middleton tallied four to pace the blocking effort.

Saturday night’s game vs. Kansas State at Hilton again saw the Cyclones outblock their opponent, 10-3. Nicks led the blocking attack with six block assists, followed by Harms with four assists and Rollman with three solo blocks.

“We are always working on blocking,” Nicks said. It’s one of our biggest strengths and we just keep getting so much better at it.

“We’re getting up to the top in the conference in blocking, and it seems to help that we work on it every day.”

The strong blocking attack wasn’t enough for the Cyclones to take the match and saw them fall 16-14, 15-5, 15-10.

Game 1 of the three-game match highlighted a much improved Cyclone team. ISU held a 14-10 advantage before the Wildcats converted five straight points to go up 15-14 before eventually converting the final point.

ISU controlled much of the net in a long game that saw 34 sideouts.

“We just didn’t finish it. It happens to us all the time. We just don’t have the experience yet, and maybe when we do get it we’ll be able to win games,” Rollman said.

“We’re not really used to getting to 14 before the other team, so when we do get there, it’s hard for us to finish. But we’re definitely going to get it done one of these times.”

Nicks again led the offensive charge for the Cyclones tallying nine kills, while Sheila Lopez added eight kills and 13 digs.

“We are definitely getting better day by day,” said Nicks. “The first time we played Kansas State it was a whole other ball game.

“We’re pushing away. We are going to win a game. I can feel it.”

The next game for the Cyclones will be on Thursday, Nov. 11, when they face Texas Tech at Hilton. First serve is set to start at 5 p.m.