The Iowa State volleyball team is looking to round out its spring season with game against Illinois that will be held in Bettendorf, Iowa.

So far this spring season, Iowa State is 2-1-1 with wins against Iowa and Drake, a loss against Division II opponent Wayne State and a tie against Creighton.

Last season, Illinois finished 23-11 overall and had two players on the All-Big 10 team.

The team won their first two games in the NCAA tournament against Hawaii and then No. 8 Washington before falling to Michigan State three sets to one.

Ali Bastianelli, a middle blocker, and Jordyn Poulter, a setter, will look to improve in their senior season after they finished on the All-Big 10 team as juniors.

Against No. 24 Western Kentucky last season, Bastianelli set the NCAA record for hitting percentage in a match with .917.

In addition to those two, outside hitter Megan Cooney was named to the Freshman All-Big 10 team.

Iowa State is coming off of a 3-1 win against Iowa and during that match Iowa State was looking to open up the offense with different variances in attack decisions.

“I feel like our offense was really was spread out, so it wasn’t the same one that was always getting it which makes it hard for their defense to judge who was getting it on our side,” said senior outside hitter Jess Schaben.

Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said that during the match the Cyclones did well in that regard and relied less on their outside hitters which allowed other players to get involved.

Moving forward, Johnson-Lynch said she wants to see the offense improve by making better attack decisions, keeping the ball alive when the team is blocked and improve the teams blocking.

“As a whole [team] we’re good, but we just need to sharpen some things up,” Johnson-Lynch said.

With the offseason looming, strength and conditioning will be vital during that time for Iowa State said Johnson-Lynch because of a tough schedule in the fall season.

For Schaben, she said that she and the team also need to work on serve receiving. She said that the Cyclones can be inconsistent in this regard with moments of good and very bad play.

“We had a really good blocking season last year, but we lost a lot of really good blockers, so I think just trying to get back to where we were [is important],” Schaben said.

Iowa State lost two productive seniors last season in Alexis Conaway, who had 103 blocks and Samara West, who had 84.

West was All-Big 12 First Team in 2017.

After the Illinois match, Iowa State will have roughly four months to improve until the fall regular season opens up towards the end of August.