The Iowa State volleyball team’s roller coaster ride of a season took an upturn over the weekend with victories over Hofstra and Western Illinois at the Physical Education Building.

The Cyclones came out and dominated Hofstra on Friday night, sweeping the netters from New York, 15-6, 15-9 and 15-5.

“We did a good job of shutting down all aspects of Hofstra’s play,” said head coach Jackie Nunez. “We especially did a good job of blocking their offense.”

The Cyclone netters faced a fired-up Western Illinois on Saturday night. The visitors raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first game as the Cyclones failed on two block attempts and committed a net violation. ISU came back to tie the game at 3-3 and 7-7, but Western won eight of the next 10 points to win the first game 15-7.

“It [the first game loss] was very disappointing to me,” Nunez said. “We should not of dropped the first game. Western Illinois came out and played aggressively in the first game and we were a little tight.”

ISU raced out to advantages of 8-0 and 12-1 in slamming home a 15-3 victory in the second game.

“We knew we had to play better after the first game, and we did,” senior Steph McCannon said.

With the score tied at two games apiece and the Cyclones leading by a score of 8-7, Dana Mucha slammed home a kill that sparked the home team to reel off seven unanswered points. Kirstin Hugdahl had three straight kills to close out the 15-7 victory.

“After the first game our ball control got a lot better,” McCannon said. “That enabled us to dominate the rest of the match.”

The Cyclones won the fourth and deciding game, 15-2, as the team’s offense was operating at full throttle.

McCannon finished the match with a kill percentage of .652, which tied her for fourth on the all-time Cyclone kill percentage for a match.

“I came out a little shaky in the first game, along with the rest of the team,” McCannon said. “After that I settled down. I thought I hit pretty well.”

Nunez said two areas the Cyclones need to improve most are blocking and ball control.

“At times we blocked extremely well during the match, and at other times we did not,” she said. “We need to develop a lot more consistency in our ball control.”

The Cyclone netters square off next against Drake on Tuesday night at Hilton Coliseum, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Nunez called the upcoming Drake contest a “grudge match.”

“They will be gunning for us, but if we play the way we are capable of, we should win the match,” she said.