Sophomore Suzanne Horner has spent a great deal of her practice time this season working on passing the volleyball behind her back but not because she is trying to be flashy.

A no-look pass in basketball is fodder for a highlight reel. A no-look pass in volleyball is standard any time Horner, the ISU setter, wants to serve up a potential kill to the right side of the court.

“You are setting the ball behind you, so it is harder to be consistent whenever you are not looking where the ball is going,” Horner said.

Horner added that the blind set is one of the most complicated skills in volleyball, and the keys to her tricky passes are location and timing.

“As you move along the net, [you think] ‘How far do I have to push the ball back? How high does it have to be?’ There are a bunch of different aspects to it,” Horner said.

Horner transferred to Iowa State from Mississippi State this season and so the transition to new hitters, as well as the hitters’ transition to a new setter, have caused a few hiccups along the way.

Junior right side hitter Mackenzie Bigbee said the adjustment period is not yet over, even though the team has already powered through nearly half of its regular season schedule.

“Every setter is different and there is stuff to adjust to,” Bigbee said. “I have been struggling a little to get my timing down. It is just something you have to work through and get used to.”

While Bigbee shouldered most of the blame for the slow transition, Horner did the same, highlighting the aspects of individual responsibility and teamwork that ISU volleyball coach Christy-Johnson Lynch said she has tried to foster in practice.

It is all part of an atmosphere of consistency that Johnson-Lynch wants to promote.

Iowa State has struggled against ranked opponents, holding a record of 0-4 against nationally rated teams, and those top-flight match ups will keep on coming throughout the season.

Iowa State still has work to do to reverse that trend. Two issues Johnson-Lynch mentioned specifically are the team’s passing and its overall offensive attack.

“I think consistency is the hardest skill to develop mentally, especially for younger players,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We are asking that of our younger players. ‘Can you be good every day, great some days and eliminate some of those poor days?'”

Junior libero Caitlin Nolan said that the struggles on the court are a direct by-product of failures in practice, where the Cyclones have not maintained a consistent level of urgency.

“Our biggest problem match to match is we just kind of let teams go on runs,” Nolan said. “It is not necessarily always the passing, it is not always the hitting. It is a combination of the two.”

Horner said if the team passing improves, it will improve her ability to set. That in turn will improve the attack numbers of Bigbee and other hitters because the offensive approach will be less predictable.

The potential domino effect is increased success against the Big 12’s top competition, which ranks among the toughest in the country.

“Everyone is so good,” Bigbee said. “It is just about being more consistent in our mental game and approach.”