The situation was all too familiar for the ISU volleyball team.

The Cyclones were headed to a winner-take-all fifth set against the Kansas Jayhawks, just four days after doing the same against Texas Tech Oct. 18.

Against the Lady Raiders, the Cyclones held a late 12-10 lead before surrendering five consecutive points and the match. But where Iowa State faltered in Lubbock, Texas, it prevailed in Ames on a national stage.

At an eight-all draw midway through the fifth set, Iowa State jumped ahead and never looked back.

“That was a great match,” ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. “It was everything you would hope it would be and everything you would hope it would be on ESPNU and national TV.”

Iowa State came out with its usual MO – slow on offense and playing from behind. When Kansas took that first frame and appeared to have all of the momentum heading into the next set, the Cyclones simply took a step back to see the big picture.

“[It was] realizing what our errors were and we knew that we had to cut them down and just play hard,” said outside hitter Ciara Capezio. “I think that second game we came out like, ‘We shouldn’t be doing this. We should be winning.’”

Despite the lack of offense on display in the first set, one Cyclone stepped up as she always does.

Libero Caitlin Nolan, who leads the Big 12 in digs per set with 5.38, finished that set with 11 digs.

“She’s such a steady player. She might be our most consistent player and that’s good for a libero,” Johnson-Lynch said.

As the ISU offense found its stride in sets two and three, Nolan continued her high level of play on the court. With an abundance of long rallies, the digs continued to pile on for Nolan.

“I was kind of dying,” Nolan said with a laugh. “Just on those long rallies, I was just so excited that they put the ball away.”

Outside of stuffing Nolan’s stat sheet, the extended rallies gave Iowa State chances to build momentum.

Though there are not any advanced analytics to measure momentum, the Cyclones winning a majority of those extended plays produced energy that the players and crowd fed off.

“I think they were huge,” Nolan said. “Especially showing a lot of grit through those plays, and at the end I think you could see people wanting to get that kill and that afterwards the celebration was just so big because we were so proud of each other.”

Though the Cyclones pulled away quickly at the end to put the Jayhawks away, the final point did not come without controversy.

The final attack from the Cyclones flew across the KU side of the court, headed right for the back corner. Instead of finding hardwood, the ball struck the feet of the official in that corner.

Both teams celebrated, but the referee in question signaled the ball was out of bounds and awarded the point to Kansas. The head official, however, overruled the call and gave the point, set and match to Iowa State.

“I would have to watch film to see if that was in or out, did we get a lucky call there or not. I don’t know,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Had we lost that point, I’m confident we would have won still.”

Once the ups and downs of the match subsided, Nolan emerged from the battle with 43 digs, tying her for the all-time Big 12 single-match record.

“I’m really happy for her because of course there was so much hype coming into [the season] and I think she’s just taking it in and realized she’ll do what she does well,” Johnson-Lynch said. “She’s playing within herself. She’s really good. She’s a really, really great libero – I think one of the best in the country.”