In past years, there were some matches that the No. 19 Iowa State volleyball team could play poorly in Big 12 play and still win. This season, that’s not the case.

The conference is strong from head to toe this year. Iowa State coach Christy Johnson-Lynch knows that there are no gimmes in league play. That showed last week in the Cyclones’ matches against the Kansas Jayhawks and the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

“Last week was a really tough week for us,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It was just kind of a grueling week for [us] physically and mentally.”

Iowa State lost to Kansas in five sets after being up 2-0 and then battled back from down two sets to defeat Texas Tech in five as well.

This week, the Cyclones face another tough conference opponent in the Baylor Bears.

“It’s another tough match for us,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Like Iowa State, Baylor has only one Big 12 loss on the season. However, the Bears loss was a 0-3 defeat to the Texas Longhorns.

During the preseason, Baylor was predicted to finish above Iowa State in the Big 12 ranks. That would serve as motivation for some teams, but not for the Cyclones Johnson-Lynch said.

When Iowa State takes on Baylor at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum, the Cyclones will have to play smart and not overlook the Bears.

Compared to rest of the conference, Baylor is a small team and because of that Iowa State has to stay smart. Sometimes when a player sees a smaller blocker in front of them, they want to power and hit the ball down, but the blocker touches it to keep the play alive.

“(Baylor) may be smaller but they still have amazing hitters,” said outside hitter Jess Schaben. “Those hitters know how to use hands and for tall people, that is not exactly great. So we will have to stay focused on staying low.”

Johnson-Lynch expects the match to be like the UNI and Oklahoma matches that Iowa State had earlier this year. A very defensive battle with a lot of digs coming from both teams.

While the Cyclones are focused on the Bears, they are still focusing on learning more about themselves.

So far, Iowa State has learned that they have the heart to battle back against good teams. They also have learned that they can utilize the 5-1 and 6-2 systems effectively when needed and that senior Alexis Conaway’s progression at the left side is coming along just fine.

Iowa State continues to learn more and more about itself, however, its greatest bump in road is trying to figure out how to get the best out of every player on the team.

“That’s our challenge every year,” Johnson-Lynch said. “How do we get the most out of our players. Some coaches are like ‘Every coach does this way.’ I have always believed you have to tweak things to make the best of your player. How can we make the best of them?”

To some, still trying to figure what your team’s identity is while in league play is not the best situation. But for the Cyclones that is just fine. They thrive on it and expect to get better and learn more about themselves while facing Baylor on Wednesday night.

“It’s one of the hallmarks of our program,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We’ve generally been better as the season has gone on. We have been our best in November. I think we like to be creative and just continue to find ways to get better. I think we have been good at pushing and getting better.”