A five game loss on “hump day” to the Minnesota Gophers is making some even bigger humps apparent for the Iowa State women’s volleyball team, according to Head Coach Jackie Nunez.

The Cyclone netters traveled to the Big Ten Gophers’ court in Minneapolis to battle what Nunez deemed a “quirky” team, and found that the inconsistency went both ways in this contest.

ISU lost the first game 12-15, which wasn’t a good sign as history has shown in Cyclone past. When the Cyclones win the first game in the match, they are 9-0 and when they lose the first game, they are a mere 2-7.

Iowa State claimed the second and fourth games 15-6, but lost in rally scoring in the fifth and final game 15-12.

Despite being behind 6-10, Nunez’s squad broke for a comeback fueled by All-American hopeful Kirstin Hugdahl.

The score was knotted at 11-11, when the game took a turn for the worse. Hugdahl came down wrong on a block and strained her foot. She played the rest of the game, but could not get the fire back to lead her team to a victory, Nunez commented on Hugdahl’s play.

“She had been hitting the ball extremely well for us up to that point and after Kirstin’s injury, she just wasn’t able to terminate for us,” she said.

This loss brings the Cyclones to 11-7 overall and they stand at 2-1 in Big Eight play.

Nunez wasn’t happy with her team’s play even though she believed her Cyclones were better than the Gophers. She thought that inconsistency was the downfall of her squad.

“I thought that we were clearly the better team. Both teams were pretty inconsistent. We made a lot of blocking errors and hitting errors at critical times,” she said. “We just didn’t play well as a team. A lot of areas of our game aren’t going smoothly.”

Nunez has targeted a higher hitting percentage and a higher level of intensity as her team’s goals to improve upon in practice, where she feels a team is made.

“I really believe that a team is ultimately going to play like they practice. If they practice inconsistently, then it’s going to show through in matches. We need to maintain consistency in practice and take it to the court with us,” Nunez said.

ISU is coming off of a tough loss to No. 1 Nebraska where the Cyclones climbed to double-digits, a feat in which only four other teams have accomplished this season.

ISU garnered a five-game comeback win over No. 26 and Big Eight rival Kansas State earlier in the year, but ISU hasn’t been hitting above the 20 percent mark, which is crucial to gaining a win, according to Nunez.

When asked about her team being in a slump, Nunez disagreed and again said her team needs to concentrate on more consistent hitting.

“I don’t know if I want to call it a mid-season slump. We’ve just been very inconsistent in a lot of areas of our game and in our intensity,” she said.

“The two games we won, we clearly dominated,” Nunez said. “We demonstrated we really are the better team.”

Nunez cited her senior dynamic duo, Hugdahl and Steph McCannon, as the two responsible for generating the offense. McCannon is ninth in the nation in digs and is first in the Big Eight while Hugdahl is the leader in kills for the Big Eight.

ISU comes back home to Hilton Coliseum to host volleyball powerhouse Colorado at 7:30 on Saturday. The Buffaloes are rated No. 16 in the nation.

“We need to get ourselves playing well. A lot of the match against Colorado is going to be contingent upon our own execution,” Nunez said. “If we can play well, we are going to give Colorado a great match.”