Records fell at Hilton Coliseum Saturday night, but so did the ISU volleyball team.

The Iowa State volleyball team fell Saturday night to the Colorado Buffaloes, 9-15, 8-15, 10-15. The Cyclones are still winless in the Big 12, falling to an 0-4 record, and a 4-12 record overall.

Even with the loss, the Cyclones set several records for three-game matches. The most notable was the 33 kills and 64 attempts by Sonya Van Helden. Van Helden’s 33 kills were the most ever in a Cyclone three-game match, breaking the record of 27 set by Kirstin Hugdahl in 1995, and ranking third on the all-time kills in a match. Van Helden’s 64 attempts topped the 50 attempts by Steph McCannon against Rhode Island in 1995.

Senior setter Jen Lansink missed action Saturday night due to illness, allowing sophomore Julie McGrath her first start of the season.

McGrath had a record-setting 51 assists for a three game match, narrowly edging out the 50 by Kary Law against Rhode Island in 1994. McGrath was also part of the team record of 59 assists, breaking a twelve year old record of 57 assists against Mankato State for a three- game match.

“We did what we notoriously have been doing – going to six points and then getting too many errors,” said Iowa State Head Coach Jackie Nunez. “If they come out and play hard and stay focused, the wins will take care of themselves. There is nothing magical about a win.”

“We need to build up our program again,” Nunez said. “The only way is to play those people who are willing to play their best. If it means playing three seniors, it means playing three seniors; whatever it takes to build some pride in our institution.

“I ended up playing a lot of my young players,” Nunez said. “But they lacked the skills to get the job done.”

“Sonya [Van Helden] played very well, not like [Friday] night. She had 33 kills, and is a prominent force, but she has to learn to do that back to back,” Nunez said.

Colorado’s coach was also impressed with Van Helden’s performance. “Helden is the one we always talked about,” said Colorado head coach Brad Saindon. “She was their biggest offensive threat, she had a great night with very impressive kills.”

“I give Julie [McGrath] a lot of the credit. The team just did really well together,” said Sonya Van Helden. “Ultimately our goal is to win. It comes down to execution, maintaining execution. If we can’t do that, we can’t win.”

Sophomore middle blocker Melissa Schutz led Colorado with 13 kills and four blocks in the win. Senior swing hitter Rachel Wacholder added 11 kills and two service aces, and junior quick hitter Alison Koepke had nine kills.

“We’re a tired team. The Saturday matches in this conference will be difficult for everybody,” Saindon said. “I thought that we sustained our focus for as tired as we were.”

After spending only one weekend at home, Iowa State returns to the road for five matches. The Cyclones play at Texas and Texas A&M next weekend. Iowa State’s next home game is on October 26, against Oklahoma.

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The ISU volleyball team might believe that the Nebraska Cornhuskers really are unbeatable.

In Friday’s volleyball game, Nebraska prevailed over the Iowa State Cyclones, 6-15, 14-16, 6-15. This is the third Big 12 match that Iowa State has lost this season. They are now 4-11 overall and 0-3 in the Big 12.

Nebraska has tallied a 47-0 series record against the Cyclones in the nearly 20 years the two have met. Rachelle Van Scoyoc led Iowa State in kills with eleven, and had a .185 hitting percentage. Not too far behind were Sonya Van Helden with eight kills and Colleen Henican with seven kills for the match.

Freshman middle blocker Tonia Tauke led Nebraska with ten kills. Adding to the kills were junior Lisa Reitsma with nine kills, and senior Kate Crnich and sophomore Megan Korver each with eight kills.

“We were trying to get away from unforced errors, but that’s what got us,” said Colleen Henican, sophomore outside hitter. “The second game was disappointing, we expected a win. We started the game with some momentum, but we didn’t end with it.”

In the second game, Iowa State took the lead almost instantly, racking up seven points before letting Nebraska score.

“Good defense and blocking kept us going,” said Sonya Van Helden, senior outside hitter. “They played pretty good defense, but other than that, they weren’t doing anything special.”

“Nebraska was extremely beatable,” said Jackie Nunez, head coach of Iowa State, “But there were too many unforced errors.”

“We need to cut down on errors and terminate the ball,” Nunez said, “If we executed well, we could play against anyone.”

Iowa State was not the only team that felt that improvement was still needed.

“I felt that we were very flat,” said Terry Pettit, Head Coach of Nebraska, “We didn’t perform particularly well.”

“At times we served well and were able to disrupt Iowa State’s rhythm a little,” Pettit said. “It was not a very good match, and we have some big matches coming up, and we’ll have to play better.”

“If we play like this again, we might not come out with a win,” said junior outside hitter Lisa Reitsma. “I really wanted to play well, but we fell apart. We weren’t passing, and the attacking wasn’t great. The little things added up to big things.”