In ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch’s Monday press conference, she stressed that the match against the Texas Christian Horned Frogs on Saturday was not going to be a walk in the park. She was exactly correct with her statement.

The win over TCU was a gritty effort by Iowa State.

“We are kind of grateful that we got out of match in four sets,” Johnson-Lynch said.

The Cyclones took sets one and two against the Horned Frogs. But set three was all TCU.

The Horned Frogs claimed set three with the final score of 25-17. In that set, TCU had a hitting percentage of .353, a sideout percentage of 94 percent and they held Iowa State to a below average .135 hitting percentage.

“[TCU] played great defense at times against us,” Johnson-Lynch said.

After a poor set three, the Cyclones rebounded in set four.

In the fourth set, the Cyclones improved their hitting percentage to .286 and held TCU to .209 hitting percentage. With the win in set four, Iowa State took the victory over TCU.

“You are going to get these kind of games because it is the Big 12,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It is a good conference.”

Capezio a key to victory

Junior Ciara Capezio started out as a starter for Iowa State against TCU. But in the match against the Horned Frogs, she was highly inefficient early on.

In the first two sets against TCU, Capezio did not a tally a kill. Which is her main job as an outside hitter.

Since Capezio did not record a kill through the first two sets, Johnson-Lynch elected to bench her for other players who were recording kills early for the Cyclones.

“[Capezio] started out slowly,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Then came set three. Coming off the bench, Capezio finally recorded her first kill of the match. Then set four arrived.

In set four, Capezio recorded four kills to help the Cyclones beat the Horned Frogs in four sets at Hilton Coliseum. Those four kills were a crucial part of Iowa State defeating TCU.

“[Capezio] was getting kills near the back line, which she does not like to do,” Johnson-Lynch. “But those kills in the fourth set were a key in our win over TCU.”

To go along with Capezio’s five kills, she also recorded 10 digs against the Horned Frogs.

A not so decimated West Virginia team

After defeating TCU, Iowa State will take the floor on Oct. 21, as they take on the West Virginia Mountaineers.

The Mountaineers enter Hilton Coliseum with five wins to their name and are be in a rebuilding phase, as they had a decimated offseason.

They lost their head coach, Jill Kramer who left for TCU, and four key players from their 2014-15. With those losses, the Mountaineers are at the or near the bottom of every statistical category in the Big 12.

But even though West Virginia is building for the future, Johnson-Lynch sees some bright spots out of the Mountaineers.

“They have several great athletes,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Some of those athletes Johnson-Lynch is talking about are: sophomore Morgan Montgomery, who is the third in the Big 12 in kills, senior Brittany Sample who is fifth in the Big 12 in assists and junior Hannah Shreve who is sixth in the Big 12 in blocks.

“The Big 12 is a hard conference,” said senior Caitlin Nolan. “No game is a given.”