Iowa State dropped its final road game of the year to Arizona in four sets [13-25, 25-23, 22-25, 18-25]. Redshirt sophomore Lilly Wachholz, junior Faith DeRonde and sophomore Pam McCune all contributed in the losing effort.
Junior Morgan Brandt continues to climb Cyclone leaderboards. She had 25 assists and now ranks eighth in program history with 2,596 assists.
Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch now has her most losses in a season with 16. The Cyclones have a 10-16 record with a 4-11 record in conference play.
McCune has been in and out of the lineup but was a help on Iowa State’s block line in the time she was out there. She had two blocks and helped with seven kills on offense.
Rough first set
Iowa State came out on its heels in set one. Arizona jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the blink of an eye and led to a timeout from Johnson-Lynch.
The timeout did not do enough as Arizona continued to build its lead and got it to 16-8. The Wildcats ended up taking the set 25-13 and outhit the Cyclones .367 to .061.
Strong offense from Wachholz and DeRonde
Due to injuries, Wachholz and DeRonde have had to step up during the year on offense. They delivered again against Arizona with 12 kills each.
Wachholz leads the team in kills with 260 at 2.65 per set. DeRonde is second with 183 kills at 1.78 per set.
In Iowa State’s lone set win, Wachholz helped stretch Iowa State’s lead to 14-12 and ended up getting the final point in the set.
Stonestreet and Van Gorp dig everything
Senior Brooke Stonestreet led with 19 digs and freshman Rachel Van Gorp had her 18th match with double-digit digs to continue her freshman campaign.
Stonestreet and Van Gorp have been a dynamic duo on the defensive end this season. Stonestreet leads the team with 411 digs at 3.84 per set and Van Gorp is second with 297 digs at 3.19 per set.
Iowa State finishes the season with back-to-back games at home. The Cyclones take on No. 19 Utah at 5 p.m. Wednesday and No. 11 Kansas at 7 p.m. Friday. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+.