Nearly a month later, the Iowa State volleyball team still has a bitter taste in its mouth because of the Oct. 8 match.

When Iowa State made the trek to Manhattan, Kan. to face Kansas State on Oct. 8, the Cyclones were handled at the net — an area of play they’d been at least passable in for most of the season. Now they have a shot at redemption.

This time, RPI No. 15 Kansas State (20-3, 7-2 Big 12) makes the trip to Ames, where the Cyclones (11-9, 3-6 Big 12) have faltered just once in Big 12 play to RPI No. 3 Texas.

After seeing how her team fared on the road in the previous matchup, ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said she and her coaching staff must devise a better strategy if the RPI No. 23 Cyclones are to win.

“We’ll have hopefully a little bit better game plan this time around,” Johnson-Lynch said. “A lot of that starts with the serve and pass. We did not pass well down there at all, so we ended up giving them easy balls. When they get easy balls, they can run whatever [offense] they want.”

Because the Wildcats could employ any offensive strategy they wanted at times, the Cyclones struggled to maintain their attack. That led to four KSU players tallying 10 or more kills on the match.

When the opponent’s attack is that well-balanced, it makes middle blocker Alexis Conaway’s job that much harder.

“The biggest thing to [counter] that is stay balanced and watch the setter as long as possible,” Conaway said. “Once you know where it’s going, work as hard as you can to get out there and close [on the ball]. You’re not going to get there every time, but even just getting a touch to slow it down helps.”

Iowa State also struggled on the offensive side of the net in Manhattan, amassing just 45 kills at a clip of 11.25 per set, nearly 2-and-a-half below the season average of 13.64 kills per set. Of those 45 kills, 32 came in the first and third sets, the latter of which was the only set Iowa State claimed that night.

In the second and fourth frames, the KSU block came alive, holding the ISU attack to a combined hitting percentage of -.034 — not exactly a recipe for success.

Right side hitter Mackenzie Bigbee was one of the many ISU hitters that couldn’t find success in the last matchup, being held to seven kills and six errors on 19 attacks. To remedy those efficiency woes, Bigbee and the other hitters have been spending time focusing on her shot selection.

“We’ve really been focusing in practice recently about making smart shots,” Bigbee said. “If the ball’s there, put it away. If it’s not the greatest set and you’ve got a solid block in front of you, just make a smart decision to get it over with good placement.”

While the Cyclones seem to have a grip on how to flip the results from the last match vs. the Wildcats, they are also tasked with bouncing back from their first Big 12 home loss of the season. To Johnson-Lynch, however, that shouldn’t be a problem.

“Because we lost to a great team should not affect us too much,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We’re going to keep at it, keep our practices short, keep our legs fresh, our arms fresh and be ready to go on Wednesday.”

The ISU volleyball team hosts Kansas State in a battle of RPI top-25 teams at 6:30 p.m. on  Nov. 5 at Hilton Coliseum.