Iowa State Drops Big 12 Match With Colorado, 3-0

Tuesday, October 5

Ames, Iowa

TBA

Iowa State

Colorado

Iowa State Drops Big 12 Match With Colorado, 3-0

10.05.2004 | Volleyball

By: Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa - The Iowa State volleyball team suffered a loss to Colorado, another top-25 worthy Big 12 team, in a Tuesday night match at Hilton Coliseum. The Buffaloes swept ISU, winning three games by scores of 30-28, 30-25 and 30-20 to move to 9-5 overall and 4-3 in league play. The Cyclones dropped to 7-6 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12 in 2004.

"I'm disappointed at the loss of an opportunity tonight," said head coach Linda Crum. "We should have been more competitive, won some more games and had a chance to win this match."

The Cyclones started game one well, playing evenly with CU throughout the opening contest. ISU hit .208 in the game, while the Buffs hit .207. Each team had 17 kills, and Iowa State's dig total of 17 was only one more than Colorado's. The difference in the opening game was serving efficiency, as ISU committed six serving errors in the game to CU's one.

Colorado pulled away in games two and three, however, hitting with more efficiency in both games, while recording 35 kills to ISU's 28 in games two and three. Colorado pulled away from a mid-game ISU spurt in game two and dominated game three to take the match.

The Buffaloes hit at a .267 pace for the match while holding Iowa State to a .175 hitting percentage. Colorado notched 52 kills to ISU's 45 and 62 digs to Iowa State's 51. CU was also aided by 12 Cyclone service errors.

"We need to execute better in these matches," said Crum. "We had serving errors and hitting errors on key points and you can't have that. We just need to execute things better and not give away points like that."

Iowa State was led offensively by Katie Jessen, a sophomore outside hitter from Kansas City, Mo. Jessen pounded 11 kills on the night and added three digs to the effort. Brittany Dalager, a senior outside hitter from Minneota, Minn., was the other Cyclone with double-figure kills, notching 10. Dalager also tallied the fourth double-double of her 2004 campaign, as she recorded 14 digs on the evening as well.

ISU's defensive leader was sophomore Katie Churm, a libero from Irvine, Calif. Churm, who leads Iowa State in digs and is fifth-best in the Big 12, racked up 15 in tonight's loss.

"I thought we did some good things tonight," said Crum. "We ran our middle well a few times and put together a few streaks. We just have to start executing better to have a chance to win some of these matches."

Iowa State's next contest will be on Saturday, Oct. 9. The Cyclones will host Big 12 rival Baylor as part of homecoming weekend at ISU. The match is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum.