The Iowa State volleyball team met its seventh top-25 opponent and its fifth in eight matches when it took on 16th-ranked Texas A&M on Wednesday night at Hilton.

Game one didn’t start off the way the Cyclones had hoped as they saw the Aggies jump out to an early 8-0 lead. ISU came back to score four points of its own to narrow the score to 8-4, but they couldn’t hold onto the momentum and ended up falling to the Aggies 15-4.

“Texas A&M played a really good game. They ran a good offense, and we just didn’t have a lot of things that went for us,” said junior middle blocker Stacey Nicks.

“I think if we would of played a little better or up to our potential, it would of been a closer game.”

Game two was all Texas A&M. The Aggies started off the match scoring six straight points before the Cyclones were able to get the sideout. The rest of the game went pretty much the same way as ISU went down 14-0 before scoring a point to avoid the shutout in the Aggies 15-1 win.

“We did a lot of good things in the game, but we weren’t real consistent with what we did,” said senior outside hitter Sheila Lopez.

“We could get sideouts, but we just couldn’t score any points,” she said.

Poor serving and a good Texas A&M team hindered the Cyclones chance for a win in game three. The Aggies again started off strong scoring five straight points to start the game. ISU was able to battle back and make game three a little closer than the first two, but wasn’t able to capitalize off some timely opportunities. Texas A&M went on to close out the game with a 15-6 win and a 3-0 victory for the match.

The loss dropped the Cyclones record to 2-13 and 0-9 in the conference. The Aggies improved to 6-3 and 15-4 overall.

“The team is definitely improving week by week,” said Nicks. “Everyone is staying positive, and we’re getting better with each game.”

Lopez again led the charge for the Cyclones registering six kills and 10 digs. “I’ve been working with the coaches in practice with not getting blocked, and it went pretty well last night. I didn’t get blocked straight down last night, which was an improvement.”

Nicks helped out on offense totaling six kills for the Cyclones. Sara Stribe who has been handling the setting duties lately registered 21 assists in the loss.

The Aggies outhit the Cyclones on the night registering 49 kills for a .350 hitting percentage while ISU totaled 28 kills for a .058 percentage.

The next match for the Cyclones will be on Saturday, Oct. 23 when they travel to Kansas. “The game vs. Kansas gives us a good chance to win,” said Lopez. “If we play like we did in the second game vs Texas, we should have a good chance.”

Kansas has started off well in the Big 12, winning four of its first eight matches, while Iowa State is still looking for its first win in the conference. They will attempt to gain that first win when they face off against the Jayhawks who are riding a two-match losing streak.

“We just have to keep playing like we have been at times and not relax any,” Lopez said. “We can’t come into the game thinking that they’re just going to hand the win over to us because that’s not going to happen. Hopefully we can go out and get out first conference win.”