Following a tough weekend against No. 18 Baylor, Iowa State hosted a struggling Texas Tech team. Iowa State was looking to get back in the win column after splitting the series with Baylor, in which they won the first match but lost the second.
Texas Tech, 8-9 on the season and 1-4 in the conference, entered on a four-game losing streak.
The Cyclones found themselves in a tight battle in all three sets but found a way to pull out a win in each one (25-21, 25-23, 25-17).
Head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch was pleased with how her team played and handled the Red Raiders all night.
“It’s always good to come out and win it in three, and that team can be really scrappy and give a lot of fits to a lot of Big 12 teams,” Johnson-Lynch said. “They’re dangerous, so to come out of there in three is great for us.”
Iowa State came out as the aggressor and maintained that throughout the match. The Cyclones had a total of 51 kills, led by reigning Big 12 Freshman of the Week Nayeli Gonzalez with 15.
Johnson-Lynch simply said ‘Nayeli was Nayeli’ on another big night from the freshman and credited the players around her for her success. Maya Duckworth had nine kills, Pam McCune had eight, Jordan Hopp also had eight and Lilly Wachholz had six.
“We got great performances from everybody. Jordan’s numbers are pretty phenomenal and Pam’s are the same, so for those two you have to pay a lot of attention to them,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It opens up Nayeli, and Maya and Lilly. They’re doing a really nice job.”
Gonzalez was quick to credit her teammates for her success and finding the right spots to hit all night.
“Morgan gets some crazy ball up and she puts me in the perfect spot, and then my team if I get blocked I know they’re there to pick me up,” Gonzalez said. “We’re so good at getting the ball to a good spot, so it’s 100% the whole team.”
One issue the Cyclones had all night was service errors. Their aggressive tendencies got away from them at times, as they committed 11, but Johnson-Lynch said it was good to see the team attacking like they were and serving aggressively.
“I really liked our serving, we were a little higher error but we’ve really been working on serving tougher,” Johnson-Lynch said. “When you serve tougher you’re gonna miss a little more.”
When asked about the most pivotal moment in the match, Johnson-Lynch said it was set two. The Cyclones could not pull away until right at the end to narrowly win the set.
“We were a little shaky, I thought we were a little flat. We weren’t too sharp with our ball handling, but we hung in there and made a couple of nice plays at the end and that’s pivotal because if you lose that set then it’s a whole different match,” Johnson-Lynch said.
Iowa State fought through to take a 2-0 match lead and rode the momentum to finish the sweep. This was the eighth sweep of the season for the Cyclones as they improved to 13-3 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12.
Both Gonzalez and Duckworth commented on how they thought the season was progressing.
“I think the season is going great so far. I’m happy with how we’re doing and we’re gonna keep going up from where we are right now.” Duckworth said. “We’re really focused on our values this year and that’s great. I think it’s gonna push us through the Big 12 season.”
“It’s going really well, we’re really strong and we know what we need to do,” Gonzalez said. “We try to stay hungry and have a purpose for everything.”
Next up for Iowa State is a road trip to Manhattan, Kansas, to take on the Kansas State Wildcats. The match will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and can be streamed on ESPN+.
