It’s been no secret that Iowa State’s offense has been lagging behind its defense recently.

Iowa State coach Christy Johnson-Lynch has talked about the offense needing to pick up the slack multiple times throughout the past couple of weeks. Her offense answered the call against West Virginia.

“I think there’s a couple areas we can still get a lot better at [on offense],” Johnson-Lynch said. “I think the things we hoped to get better at tonight, we did [get better at].”

A balanced offensive and defensive attack is a recipe for success in almost any sport. Along with the offense getting a kickstart on Wednesday, the defense also kept up its consistent ways.

At the top of the offensive stat sheet for the Cyclones, junior hitter Jess Schaben and senior blocker Alexis Conaway’s names could be found.

The duo sparked Iowa State’s offense with 18 kills each. It’s not only important that the combo finished with so many kills, but it’s also important in the manner they added those stats.

Schaben and Conaway not only thrived, but they thrived while being efficient. Schaben finished the match with a .348 hitting percentage, and Conaway had a .319 hitting percentage.

“I think this past couple weeks we’ve really been working on hitting high,” Schaben said. “I think that’s a way we did [hit a high hitting percentage]. We hit high, and we hit smart shots.”

During Conaway’s career at Iowa State, the senior has established herself as an efficient player. Since Big 12 play has started, Conaway has struggled with her efficiency.

Conaway has hit over .300 in each of her first three seasons, but this season the senior is lingering around .220.

Conaway shined against Kansas with a .343 hitting percentage, but outside of that performance, the blocker has failed to climb over the .175 mark in conference.

“We were hoping [Conaway] could figure some things out a little bit better [on the] left side, and she absolutely did that tonight,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Schaben and Conaway were the ringleaders in the win, but it takes more than two players to maintain success.

Senior setter Monique Harris had the luxury of setting for redshirt senior right-side hitter Samara West and freshman blocker Avery Rhodes. West and Rhodes followed suit and delivered efficient games of their own.

Rhodes hit four kills on .375 hitting percentage and West hit eight kills on .333 hitting percentage.

“We’ve been working on a lot of ranges, just not hitting to the same shots, so that kind of played into [the efficiency],” West said.

An offense can have the pressure eased off of it when a defense is performing well. With how often Iowa State has had dominant defensive performances this season, it could be easy to take it for granted.

The defense had another stingy outing for the Cardinal and Gold. The Cyclones out blocked the Mountaineers 19.5 to 3.0. Meanwhile redshirt sophomore Hali Hillegas anchored the back row, scooping out 18 digs.

Iowa State’s achilles’ heel this season has been its’ offense. It appears the unit is beginning to gel after a slow start in conference play.

“We want to add just enough [wrinkles] to not allow the opponent to know exactly what we’re doing, and I think that’s what we’ll continue to do,” Johnson-Lynch said.