The last time ISU volleyball lost its Big 12 opener at home was in 2004 when it lost to Texas A&M.

The winning streak continued as the Cyclones opened the Big 12 portion of their schedule with a sweep against Texas Tech at Hilton Coliseum.

A week after the Cyclones owned a .147 hitting percentage against a top-five Nebraska team, they wanted to come out and assert themselves against the defensive-minded Texas Tech Red Raiders.

“We really focused on coming out aggressive against Texas Tech during practice this week,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch.

That is exactly what Iowa State did.

In the first set, the Cyclones had an impressive .250 hitting percentage compared to Texas Tech’s .111. The second set was lower, but Iowa State hit .200 while Tech hit .091.

Then in the third and final set, the Cyclones finished off strong, hitting .485 percent. Overall, the Cyclones hit .312 on the day.

The astonishing hitting performance by Iowa State was more of a collective effort instead of one or two certain players carrying the team on their shoulders.

ISU hitting percentage in four season losses: .077, .211, .232 and .147.

— Kevin Horner (@kevin_jhorner) September 26, 2015

“I thought our outside hitters and middles blockers played very well today,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Leading the way for the outside hitters of Iowa State was freshman Jess Schaben and junior Ciara Capezio. The duo combined for 23 of Iowa State’s 47 kills.

“Schaben and Capezio both played great,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Schaben played through a sore hitting shoulder and Capezio fought back after dipping at one point.”

The middle blockers for the Cyclones played up to Johnson-Lynch’s expectations, as she wanted them to play faster than they have in the past few weeks.

“Maintaining a consistent attack helped us,” said sophomore middle blocker Alexis Conaway.

Conaway and fellow middle blocker Samara West combined for 19 kills against the Red Raiders. This was Conaway and West’s best collective scoring effort of the season.

Even though Iowa State had an efficient offensive outing against Texas Tech, the Red Raiders did out-do the Cyclones in one area of the match: digs.

The Red Raiders amounted 55 digs to the Cyclones’ 49 digs.

“It is surprising seeing us being out dug,” Johnson-Lynch said. “[Texas Tech’s] libero was just in the right place at the right time.”

In honor of Big 12 starting for ISU VB: the worst place ISU has ever finished under CJL was T-6 in 2005

— Kroeger (@GKroegs) September 26, 2015

Although the Cyclones had a week of preparation for Texas Tech, there were some things that they did not execute on.

Johnson-Lynch felt like the Cyclones left a lot of points on the board. The transition swings and the serving errors need some cleaning up if Iowa State wants to break open sets and matches in the future.

Though there were things that were left for Johnson-Lynch to desire for, Iowa State started off better than they did last season. Last year the Cyclones started Big 12 play with two straight losses.

“It would a huge statement for us to go out and beat Texas Tech,” said setter Monique Harris. “One because it was the first Big 12 game at home this season and two because they are a good team.”