The offense of the Iowa State volleyball team did not play up to the expectations of the players and coaches but the team’s defense was enough for the Cyclones to secure win three out of four sets in a win over West Virginia.

Iowa State came away from the match with a .175 hitting percentage, which is well below the team’s .231 average this season. Head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch stressed the importance of improving upon this, saying that the team cannot repeat that performance on Sunday and expect another win.

“We have got to find a way to get our offense going. We can focus on them all we want, but we’ve got to find a way to get a few more kills out of a few more spots,” Johnson-Lynch said.

While the offense did not perform up to the standard, the Cyclone defense did everything necessary to ensure a win for the team.

This strong defensive outing started in the back row, where the Cyclones were able to dig just about every ball that was hit at them. Five Iowa State players finished the match with over nine digs, highlighted by 27 from Marija Popovic in her return to the team.

Johnson-Lynch appreciated the effort that her team put out on defense and believes that the results properly state how hard they played in that aspect of the game.

“We’ve always said we’re scrappy, we play great defense, that’s the foundation of our program is our ball handling and defense,” Johnson-Lynch said. “That is the expectation, everybody is out there playing hard defensively, and we need team effort out there on defense.”

As the Big 12 leader in digs per set with 4.71, the return of Popovic was much needed for an Iowa State team that will need to finish strong for a high placement in the conference.

Popovic sat out of the previous week’s matchups against Texas due to Health and Safety Protocols from the Big 12 Conference. This return to the team was very refreshing for Popovic, as sitting out was very difficult for her.

“It’s really good to be back. It was really hard for me watching games from home, and I couldn’t help my team,” Popovic said.

Iowa State recorded 11 blocks during the match, but the team made many deflections at the net that did not show up in the stat sheet. These touches are something that Johnson-Lynch believes is one of the biggest parts of the game, as it can disrupt the opposing hitters.

Middle blocker Candelaria Herrera liked what she saw from the defense at the net after the team had been working on it all week.

“We were training that the whole week, so I think that was one of our goals,” Herrera said. “Everyone was doing their job out there.”

The blocking game has been a major point of emphasis for Iowa State this year as it currently sits fourth in the conference with 2.60 per set, but Johnson-Lynch believes that the blockers could still perform much better than they have this season.

“We had a stretch there where I thought we just, I mean I don’t know what set it was, but we had several blocks in a row, and then I thought they started abusing us a little bit,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Iowa State and West Virginia will match up once again at 1 p.m. on Sunday.