In the final weekend of Iowa State volleyball’s fall season, the Cyclones swept the Horned Frogs in the season and won both matches.

Iowa State beat TCU three sets to one Friday night and went to five matches and beat them three sets to two Saturday.

The Cyclones had complete games Friday and Saturday, with both their offense and defense coming together to bring Iowa State the win.

Outsides and Right sides and Middles, Oh My

The offense was a large part of Iowa State getting the wins this past weekend, with the Cyclones hitting a season-high .346 hitting percentage Friday and second highest hitting percentage Saturday with a .314.

The team combined for 59 kills Friday and 64 more Saturday.

A large part of the offensive success Friday was the ability to get all hitters involved, with four players recording kills in double figures and hitting above .300.

Junior right side hitter Eleanor Holthaus led the charge with 14 kills and a .444 hitting percentage, but she wasn’t the only one hitting over .400 as senior middle blocker Candelaria Herrera also had 12 kills and a .409 hitting percentage.

The outsides also contributed in the match, with junior outside hitter Brooke Andersen recording 13 kills and a .324 hitting percentage and sophomore Annie Hatch adding in another 11 kills and .375 hitting percentage.

Saturday was a Holthaus-Andersen takeover, with 10 of Iowa State’s 15 points in the fifth set coming off of kills and the two hitters accounting for 18 of the Cyclones’ combined 25 kills in the final two sets.

Holthaus hit a season-high 22 kills Saturday on .486 hitting while Andersen added in another 14 kills to the match with a .262 hitting percentage.

The middles contributed 15 kills to the match, with Herrera putting down nine on .278 hitting and redshirt freshman Abby Greiman adding in six on a solid .545 hitting percentage.

Defense Does It

As the offense was heating up and scoring points for the Cyclones, so too was the defense.

Iowa State’s defense held TCU to a .079 hitting percentage Friday and .205 hitting Saturday.

The Cyclones also had 74 digs Friday, led by senior Izzy Enna with 24, and leading three players to get double-doubles and allowing TCU to record one ace and 38 kills.

Holthaus, Andersen and senior setter Piper Mauck all recorded double-doubles Friday night — Holthaus and Andersen on kills and digs, Mauck with assists and digs.

Holthaus had 14 kills and 14 digs, Andersen had 13 kills and 11 digs and Mauck had 49 assists along with 13 digs.

On Saturday, the Cyclones had 74 digs, once again led by Enna with 18, but TCU was much stronger with the serve, notching eight aces in the match.

The strongest point for the defense was the blocking, where Iowa State had 12 blocks both Friday and Saturday.

Iowa State’s highest blocking Friday came in sets one and four, where they blocked five attempts in set one, leading TCU to have a -.097 hitting percentage and six kills, and racked up four blocks in set four, with the Horned Frogs having a .049 hitting percentage and 10 kills.

Herrera led Friday’s match with eight blocks, followed by Mauck with five.

The Cyclones’ best blocking Saturday came in set four, where they stuffed five attempts and TCU got away with a .140 hitting percentage and 14 kills.

Mauck, Herrera and Greiman all led the blocking effort Saturday, each contributing six blocks to the match.

Ending With a Positive

After a seemingly rough season that saw an eight-match losing streak, the Cyclones will finish the fall season on a high note.

Iowa State ends the season with a 5-9 conference record.

After sitting with two wins for most of the season, the Cyclones were able to finish the season with a series sweep over TCU and a three-match winning streak.

With no Big 12 Tournament for volleyball this year, Iowa State will close out the fall season tied for fifth place in the Big 12.