No. 17 Baylor bested Iowa State 3-1 Wednesday night [23-25, 18-25, 25-19, 16-25]. Junior Faith DeRonde, freshman Rachel Van Gorp and junior Morgan Brandt were bright spots in the losing effort.
In set one, Iowa State got out to an early 8-4 lead, but eventually let Baylor claw its way back into the set. This proved detrimental in set one as the Cyclones ended up dropping the set 25-23.
In set two, Iowa State fell behind early and continued to let the Bears stretch their lead. Baylor took the set 25-18.
Iowa State got back to its strong defensive ways in set three. The Cyclones had four block assists and 21 digs in the set and took the set 25-19 on a kill from DeRonde.
Baylor was just too much for Iowa State to handle throughout the match, as the Bears took nine of the final 13 points to win the set 25-16. Baylor’s Elise Mcghee had six kills in this set.
Offense tough to come by
Iowa State found it difficult to scrounge up offense largely due to an impressive block line from Baylor. The Bears had 10 blocks during the match and saw three different players with three-plus blocks.
DeRonde was the only Cyclone in double figures in any category with 16 kills at a .297 hitting percentage.
Coming off of her Big 12 Rookie of the Week award, Van Gorp gave the Cyclones some much-needed offense. She had eight kills at a team-high .389 hitting percentage.
Ranked teams proving why they’re ranked
Iowa State has had trouble upsetting any ranked teams it has faced this season. The Cyclones have faced then-No. 24 BYU, then-No. 9 Kansas and now-No. 17 Baylor and have lost all three games by a combined set score of 9-3.
The main problem across all three of these games is Iowa State’s inability to get sustained offense which can be attributed to strong block lines on all three teams.
Baylor had 10 blocks, Kansas had seven blocks and BYU had seven blocks to stymie the Cyclones offense.
Iowa State has a chance to flip the script Friday when it faces No. 18 TCU.
Brandt continues setting up at a high level
Throughout the season, Brandt continues to keep climbing up the Iowa State all-time leaderboard for assists. She had 25 assists Wednesday to keep adding to that number.
If Iowa State wants to get back on track, it will need Brandt to continue setting up outside hitters at a high level.
Brandt leads the team with 753 assists on the season at 8.96 per set. She is the last Cyclone to record 60-plus assists in a match dating back to when they faced Cincinnati last year.
Iowa State continues its quick road trip with a match against No. 18 TCU at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The game will be live-streamed on ESPN+.
