Facing falling back to a losing record, Iowa State was able to defeat Kansas State 3-1, behind senior Grace Lazard’s monstrous performance.

“Obviously, I think the game ball goes to Grace [Lazard],” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “Pretty remarkable, I haven’t seen that happen many times in sports were someone just takes over like that.”

Johnson-Lynch said part of the credit in Lazard’s night had to go to the team, especially setter Piper Mauck, in setting up Lazard.

Johnson-Lynch added that Mauck was able to set the ball high enough for Lazard that, even when Kansas State brought three blockers, Lazard was able to register the kill.

Entering the match, Iowa State sat in third from last in the Big 12 with Kansas State one place below them.

With the win, Iowa State is now 12-11 overall and 5-5 in the Big 12.

In Iowa State’s last game against Texas, the Cyclones lost in three straight sets and libero Izzy Enna said the game was a wake up call.

“We were kinda just rolling through teams easily … Texas really woke us up, so it was great to get back and find our groove again [against Kansas State],” Enna said.

Enna finished the game with 19 digs, a season high.

Iowa State dominated in the first set 25-15, but Kansas State was able to take the second 25-21.

After the game, Lazard said the second set was the set where the team’s morale was the lowest.

“We were rolling there for awhile and at some point you are going to come back to earth a little bit and this week we came down to earth,” Johnson-Lynch said. “[The game against] Texas was ok, but this was a grind-out find a way to win night.”

Then in the third set, Kansas State held a 24-22 lead, but Iowa State was able to score four straight points to steal the set away from the Wildcats.

In the comeback, Candelaria Herrera and Jess Schaben recorded consecutive kills to cut the Kansas State lead to 24-24.

Subsequently, Schaben and Herrera combined for a block to put the Cyclones up one.

To end the set, Schaben notched another kill.

With the morale lower than usual, Izzy Enna said taking the third set gave the team an energy boost.

In the fourth and final set, which Iowa State won 25-15, it was the Lazard show.

Entering the set with an already impressive stat line through three sets, 10 kills and a solo block and two block assists, Lazard added seven more kills, another solo block and three more block assists.

Overall, Lazard lead all players in kills (17), solo blocks (two), and block assists (five). In addition, Lazard finished second overall in the match in hitting percentage which was .500.

Lazard said she attributed her fourth set take over to staying positive through the second and third sets and focusing on the next point before each serve.

Moving forward, Lazard said Iowa State is hard to beat when the team stays aggressive and Enna said the team just needs to keep fighting.

After the game against Kansas State, the Cyclones are off until November 3 when they travel to TCU.