Iowa State defeated Ole Miss in three sets to begin the season with the help of hitters Grace Lazard and Eleanor Holthaus, who dominated the game.

In the match, Lazard finished with 11 kills, a .550 hitting percentage and three aces while Holthaus had 10 kills, a .714 hitting percentage and a block.

Prior to the game, Holthaus, who is a freshman, said that she had some jitters.

“I was super jittery all day,” Holthaus said. ”In my class, I couldn’t sit still…. but having my teammates out there looking at me and telling me I can do it was really helpful and made me achieve that confidence and compete the way that I did tonight.”

In the first set, which Iowa State won 25-21, the Cyclones started slowly and had trouble getting their offense going. They finished with 13 kills and a .353 hitting percentage.

Then in the second set, Iowa State’s offense began to take off.

With the score at 9-7, Jess Schaben recorded a kill that began a 16-4 run. The next point after Schabens kill was a block by Holthaus that made the score 11-7. Later, Holthaus hit the ball from the right side of the court to the opposite line making the score 14-8.

Holthaus said after the game that the coaching staff has told the team that they want them attacking different parts of the court.

“They have emphasized if you can do more than one thing then you will really make an impact out there so I’ve been working on making as many shots as I can,” Holthaus said.

Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said after the game that Holthaus did a good job of attacking different parts of the court and said that Lazard is playing well offensively.

“I think Eleanor on the right side she hit both line and some cross court,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Grace is really mixing it up more than I’ve ever seen her I think she is playing, offensively, a pretty high level.”

As Iowa State closed out the second set, Lazard finished with four kills and the team had 15 kills and a .500 hitting percentage.

Johnson-Lynch applauded sophomore setter Piper Mauck after the game for her ability to set up the hitters during the game.

“I think Piper did a nice job,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Anytime you hit .433 against a pretty good team you know your setter [is] doing something right. She really did keep our offense pretty balanced.”

Mauck finished with 37 total assists.

To begin the third set, Holthaus, and then Lazard, recorded the first two points for the Cyclones with kills to make the score 2-2.

Lazard began to take over Iowa State’s box score when she scored four straight points for the Cyclones. She had two kills and then two aces. Her last ace made the score 6-5 in favor of Iowa State.

After Lazard established the lead, Iowa State scored five more unanswered points including another Lazard ace which put the Cyclones up 12-5.

After that point, Iowa State dominated the rest of the game where Holthaus had four more kills and Lazard had one more.

At the end of the game with the reserve players in, Iowa State went from a 24-14 lead to a 24-19 in which Johnson-Lynch called a timeout and proceed to substitute players back in the game. Iowa State won the match though after Hannah Bailey had a kill to end the third set.

In the third set, Iowa State finished with 17 kills and a .469 hitting percentage as a team.

Lazard said that this game could be a potential building block game after she and the team felt much more comfortable compared to Iowa State’s exhibition versus South Dakota.

“I think everyone was just super confident in their skills,” Lazard said. “We’ve been working all week on building and getting better from the game last weekend and so it was just great to feel comfortable in our ability to just go out and execute.”

Iowa State will look to keep that level of comfortability as the Cyclones face arguably the toughest team they will face in the Iowa State Challenge tomorrow in Oregon State at 6:30 p.m. Before that match, Iowa State is set to face Virginia at 10 a.m.