Despite a sweep, Iowa State volleyball still has some issues it needs to fix

Hannah Olson/Iowa State Daily
Teammates celebrate winning a point during their match on Aug. 25 in Hilton Coliseum. Cyclones went on to sweep Kent State 3-0 in their first match of the season. 

Garrett Kroeger
August 25, 2017

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

A team will face issues early on in the season that it will need to fix as the year progresses.

That was certainly the case for the Iowa State volleyball team during its season opener.

The Cyclones kicked off their season Friday night against the Kent State Golden Flashes. While the Cardinal and Gold swept (25-19, 25-23 and 25-18) the Golden Flashes, it was a lot closer than the final score showed.

“I think we just had errors,” said middle blocker Samara West. “We just gave (Kent State) those easy points were we could have made better shots or better swings to get those points.”

At times the Cyclones showed just how good they can be this season. Then at other times, they struggled mostly during the second set.

Heading into the match, coach Christy Johnson-Lynch would have thought her team’s nerves and jitters would have subsided by the second set. But it did not seem like that to begin.

“You would think by second set we would be a little bit more settled down,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We went up and made poor choices on attack and we made errors. Everyone played apart. Samara made an error. Then Genesis (Miranda) made an error.

“Maybe just not recognizing the situation. Ok this is not a great set. I just have to keep this ball in play and give ourselves another chance. I think we just got a little lackadaisical and sloppy.”

The Cyclones committed seven attacking, three service and one blocking error in the second set, which they squeaked by with a 25-23 win. That was after Iowa State won the first comfortable by a score of 25-19.

Despite the bumpiness that was the second set, Iowa State finally came alive in the third and final set.

Players like West and Grace Lazard finally got going in the end, as each finished with 10 kills. The Cyclones’ swing block came alive in the end as well.

“Tonight, our middles and Samara were really hot offensively,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Johnson-Lynch certainly could pick out a handful of issues Iowa State needs to fix as the season progresses, some that were to be expected and some that were surprising. However, she thought Kent State was a good test for the Cyclones to begin the year.

“I think it showed very much where we are,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I got lots of notes what we can work on. Some of them we already knew and some of them were a little surprising. But this was a great test for us.”

As the season moves on, Iowa State’s offense needs to click better and needs to pass a little bit better, according to Johnson-Lynch. But she was pleased with the flashes.

While Iowa State has some tinkering to do during practice next week, it will have to wait to fix them as the team returns to the court Saturday to take on Omaha at 12 p.m. and New Mexico at 6:30 p.m at Hilton Coliseum.

Omaha and New Mexico are two totally different teams, which means the Cyclones will have to adjust their issues on the fly according to Johnson-Lynch.

Last year, Omaha gave it all it could against Iowa State and New Mexico is playing eight freshman this season. So, the Cyclones and Johnson-Lynch do not know what exactly to expect from each team. But they feel ready.

Overall, Iowa State was happy with its season-opening performance. But the Cyclones were more happy that they finally played an actual opponent instead of themselves.

“It was amazing,” West said. “We worked really hard this summer with conditioning and workouts. Even in the preseason, working with the 6-2. Getting comfortable with that. So we were excited to get back onto the court and play somebody besides just us.”