In Iowa State’s first home Big 12 game, the Cyclones hosted No. 19 Baylor. During the match, Iowa State was able to push the Bears to five sets, but Iowa State was unable to come away with the upset.

Pressley dominates for the Bears

Yossiana Pressley, an outside hitter for the Bears, led her team and all players with 39 kills and 13 digs, which are career-highs for the sophomore.

As a team, Baylor finished with 67 kills, meaning Pressley accounted for 58.2 percent of the Bears’ kills during the match.

During the match, Iowa State was bringing as many as three blockers to stop Pressley, but Iowa State still finished with eight team blocks as Pressley hit over and around the Cyclone blockers.

Pressley also had an efficient hitting percentage of .390.

In the first set, her stat line was five kills and a -.067 hitting percentage.

The player with the second most kills in the match was Iowa State’s Jess Schaben, who had 20.

Iowa State’s block fails

During the game, Iowa State had eight blocks through five sets, which equates to 1.6 blocks per set. 

Earlier in the season, coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said that she wants to average around three blocks per set, or about double of what Iowa State had on Saturday.

In the first set, Iowa State had four blocks but had four more for the rest of the game.

Garce Lazard, a middle blocker, led Iowa State with five block assists.

Iowa State’s middle blockers spearhead offensive attack

Despite Iowa State’s block having only eight blocks through five sets, there was still an immense amount of offensive output going through Iowa State’s middle blockers.

While Schaben led Iowa State with 20 kills middle blockers Candelaria Herrera and Lazard were second and third.

Herrera set a career high with 16 kills, and Lazard chipped in 10.

Until recently, Herrera had been playing outside hitter, but a lack of depth at middle blocker due to injuries to Meegan Hart and Avery Rhodes led to a position switch.

In addition, both Herrera and Lazard had a hitting percentage above .400 with Herrera checking in at .483 and Lazard at .444.