The Iowa State volleyball squad was back in action Saturday afternoon at the Penn State Classic, looking to bounce back after their first loss of the season Friday night. They faced off against the Oregon State Beavers, who came into the match with a 1-3 record and were on a three match losing skid.

After starting out down 2-0 in the first set the Cyclones went on a 7-1 run with help from four Beaver errors. After some back and forth, Iowa State found a groove to make their lead 16-10. This forced Oregon State to take their first timeout.

After the timeout, the two teams exchanged points until a 24-16 Cyclones lead. The Beavers were able to fight off four straight set points, forcing an Iowa State timeout. Out of the timeout, the Cyclones took the set 25-20 on a Kenzie Mantz kill.

Annie Hatch led Iowa State offensively with six kills in the first set. Mantz had three, with three other Cyclones contributing two. Jaden Newsome had nine assists, and Marija Popovic chipped in six digs defensively. Oregon State’s seven attacking errors and .167 hitting percentage played a big part in the result.

The second set started out with an even 4-4 score. The Cyclones went on a 4-0 run with help from three errors by the Beavers to get out to an 8-4 lead. After extending the lead to 12-6 Oregon State used their first timeout of the set.

After going on a 5-1 run by Iowa State to make it 17-7, Oregon State responded with a 5-0 run to make it 17-12. After a timeout by the Cyclones, the Beavers went on a 9-4 run to tie things up at 21. Iowa State would respond with a 4-0 run of their own to close out the set 25-21.

Eleanor Holthaus led the Cyclones with five kills in the set, with Mantz having four of her own. Newsome contributed 10 assists, and the Beavers committed seven more attacking errors.

The third set started out very tightly contested as the teams exchanged points until Iowa State went on a 4-0 run, making the score 10-6 and forcing an Oregon State timeout. The Cyclones would go on to win the set 25-18 in a fairly stress-free fashion. After seven errors in each of the first two sets, the Beavers committed 11 in the third.

Holthaus paced the Cyclones offensively with 10 kills, while also contributing 11 digs on the defensive side of things. Mantz and Hatch each had nine kills in the match. Newsome finished with 29 assists, and Popovic had 12 digs defensively.

The story of the match is in these two stats: Oregon State committed 23 attack errors to Iowa State’s 10, and they had a hitting percentage of only .122 to Iowa State’s .318.

The Cyclones move to 3-1 on the season. They will face off against Ball State, Syracuse, and Iowa in the Cy-Hawk Series Tournament next weekend.