Iowa State played its first match of the week in Hamilton, New York against Colgate and came away with a 3-1 victory Thursday night.
The win improved the Cyclones’ record to 6-4, with one match remaining before Big 12 play, and gave them their second straight win.
The Raiders struggled to stop Iowa State in the first set, with four kills from redshirt sophomore Kiersten Schmitt and redshirt junior Amiree Hendricks-Walker. The Cyclones fueled a large lead with a 4-0 run in the middle of the set to take a 15-8 lead. Iowa State then took the first set 25-17.
The second set started fairly evenly, but the Cyclones took a decent lead, going up 10-6 after a 7-1 run. Later in the set, Colgate responded with a 7-1 lead itself and won the second set 25-22.
Redshirt sophomore Lilly Wachholz took over the third set with six kills to propel Iowa State to a win. Schmitt put the nail in the coffin with a kill, giving the Cyclones the third set 25-20.
Iowa State dominated the fourth and final set, leading the entire set after going up 2-1. Seven Cyclones had a kill in the last set, showing their depth late in the match.
No Nayeli Gonzalez or Rachel Van Gorp
Iowa State played without two of its usual starters, sophomore Nayeli Gonzalez and freshman Rachel Van Gorp.
Gonzalez, who was an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American as a freshman, leads the Cyclones in kills with 109 and 3.30 per set.
Van Gorp has been on a tear as of recently, leading Iowa State with 140 digs at a .970 receive percentage.
Luckily for the Cyclones, senior Brooke Stonestreet has plenty of experience at libero and led the team with 26 digs against the Raiders.
Offense by committee
Colgate could not have prepared for the distributed attack that Iowa State brought on.
Three Cyclones had over 10 kills, with Wachholz leading the way at 15. Junior Maya Duckworth added 13 and Schmitt had 12 of her own.
Iowa State also hit the ball at a much higher rate compared to its previous weekend in South Dakota. The Cyclones hit at a .341 rate while holding the Raiders to .178.
Before the match, Gonzalez mentioned Iowa State needed to be more aggressive on the offensive end and take advantage of opportunities. They did just that Thursday night and had 62 kills as a team.
Limiting errors led to success
Cyclones head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch has consistently said there are things to work on and tweak, and it seems like her team always makes adjustments in areas they lacked in the match before.
On Thursday night, it seemed like one of those adjustments was taking care of the ball and ball handling on the attack. After a weekend of having 20 or more attack errors in all three games in South Dakota, Iowa State only had 16 errors.
Additionally, the Cyclones had just two block errors and zero ball handling errors. Taking care of the ball will be a crucial part of the match if Iowa State wants to stay in it against an undefeated Syracuse team on Saturday.
This match was the first time Iowa State and Colgate have ever faced off and the Cyclones took a 1-0 all-time series lead.
Next up, Iowa State takes on ACC opponent Syracuse at noon Saturday in Syracuse, New York.
