AMES – Iowa State dominated Texas Tech at home 3-0 to end a three-match slide Friday night. The sweep was Iowa State’s third of the season and first in conference play.

The win improved the Cyclones record to 9-8 and 3-3 in conference play. Iowa State is now 6-2 at home. Texas Tech dropped to 9-10 and 1-6 in Big 12 play.

The first set was all Iowa State. Four Texas Tech errors helped give Iowa State a 7-2 lead early, but it didn’t stop there. A 12-0 Cyclone run that featured two aces from junior middle blocker Tierney Jackson gave them a very comfortable 17-4 lead. 

Texas Tech kept the second set a little closer. It was a lot of back-and-forth up until it was knotted up at 11. Iowa State slowly began to pull away, and a kill from redshirt sophomore Lilly Wachholz put it away 25-20. 

Iowa State had a chance to win in a sweep in the third set, something the Cyclones have struggled to finish this year. The Red Raiders jumped out to an early 5-2 lead, but back-to-back kills from junior outside hitter Faith DeRonde made it 5-4. Iowa State stayed resilient and got out to a 21-18 lead. A 4-0 run gave Iowa State the win and its first sweep in Big 12 play.

Game of runs

The Cyclones fed off of each other and the crowd in Friday’s match, as the energy fueled a few runs that helped the Cyclones to victory. 

Early in the first set, Iowa State held a 7-4 lead after a Texas Tech block. The Red Raiders did not score again for 13 points. The Cyclones then went on a 12-0 run that included three kills from redshirt junior middle blocker Amiree Hendricks-Walker and two service aces from Jackson.

The third set had two 4-0 Cyclones runs that helped seal the win. With a one point lead at 16-15, the Cyclones offense scored four straight to build some cushion late in the set. 

The second run was the finisher. Freshman setter Emily Bobbitt served the ball, and a Texas Tech reception error completed the 4-0 run and won the match.

Distributed offense

The Cyclones offense had three players reach 10 kills, which is even more impressive since it was done in a three-set match. 

Freshman libero and outside hitter Rachel Van Gorp, Hendricks-Walker and DeRonde all had 10 kills Friday. 

DeRonde and Van Gorp are both adjusting to playing at the net more after spending a majority of the season in the back row.

“I’m taking that role and rolling with it,” DeRonde said. “I’ve always told coach that I can be versatile and just do whatever she needed to me to [do], so I think that’s just what I’m doing right now.”

Hendricks-Walker had her highest hitting percentage of the season at .667 and reached 10 kills for the fifth time in the last six matches. She also had zero attack errors for the second time this year.

“I just was so pumped, I honestly think that’s what it was,” Hendricks-Walker said. “How we were playing and just the energy, like consistently, it never dropped on the court.”

Hendricks-Walker was not the only one who had a good hitting percentage against Texas Tech. The team’s overall was .317, which is the fourth highest this season. 

“We’re playing that 6-2 (formation) now, so that allows us to kinda spread out the offense a bit,” head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. “We don’t necessarily have to rely on one person.”

Confidence boosting win

The win snapped a three-match losing streak for the Cyclones. It was the longest streak of losses for the Cyclones so far this season.

Injuries also made the losing streak hurt the morale more than it already would have, but the players who step on the floor have not lost focus of what they want to do this season. 

“I think it definitely gives us that confidence that we’ve been looking for,” Hendricks-Walker said. “Being able to play together regardless of who is on the floor is amazing, and it gives us that momentum to go for the rest of the season.”

Additionally, the match lasted only 78 minutes after the start at 6:30 p.m. The shorter match gives the Cyclones a little bit more time to rest up after a long week, physically and emotionally. 

“We have had so many four or five set matches, so many long matches, and Texas Tech is a good team, they just beat Kansas State a week ago,” Johnson-Lynch said. “This is probably the best we’ve played in a long while.”

Iowa State is back on the road on Wednesday for a one-game road trip to Lawrence, Kansas, to take on the Kansas Jayhawks.