No. 11 Iowa State Sweeps Kansas State, 3-0

Saturday, September 26

Ames, Iowa

2:00 PM

Iowa State

Kansas State

No. 11 Iowa State Sweeps Kansas State, 3-0

09.26.2009 | Volleyball

By: cyclones.com

AMES, Iowa ? Six of Iowa State's seven attackers hit over .300 and the 11th-ranked Cyclones hit .327 as a team to sweep Kansas State, 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-23), and snap their two-match Big 12 losing streak Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.

The Cyclones (10-3, 2-2 Big 12) overcame the offensive struggles of All-Big 12 outside hitter Victoria Henson to get the win and improve to 4-0 at home.

Henson finished with 12 kills but hit just .188 in the win, but the Cyclones got plenty of production from their other attackers.

“Usually, Victoria has to carry our team offensively and I thought other people did a nice job of stepping up today,” Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. “We've been working on our transition and I thought that looked pretty good tonight. We got the ball to our middles pretty quick and sometimes before the other side could even set up."

The other people Johnson-Lynch was referring to included Rachel Hockaday, who finished with a match-high 13 kills while hitting .321. Iowa State's middle blocking tandem of Diane Kieger and Debbie Stadick finished with five and eight kills, respectively. Kieger hit .714 and Stadick was at .312. Right side hitter Kelsey Petersen also had a solid match, tallying seven kills and hitting .385.

The Cyclones also got back on track defensively, out digging the Wildcats (6-7, 0-3) 45-30 to snap a two-match skid of being out dug. Ashley Mass wrapped up an impressive week, digging a match-high 17 balls. Mass tallied 50 digs in six sets to average 8.33 per frame this week.

In the opening stanza, ISU bolted out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back en route to winning the opening set 25-15. Hockaday led the way with four kills and five digs and ISU hit .346 while holding the Wildcats to a .037 hitting efficiency in the set.

Much like the first set, ISU never trailed in the second, but did have to overcome six ties to take a 25-22 win and head into the break up 2-0. The Cyclones again topped .300, hitting .333 as a team for the win. Hockaday tallied five more kills in the set and Caitlin Mahoney served ISU to a key 4-0 run midway through the set.

In the third frame, ISU had to battle from behind to get the win. The Cyclones trailed 23-21 in the set, but were able to put together a 4-0 run to earn the sweep. Trailing by two, ISU turned to Petersen, who connected on a kill from setter Kaylee Manns to draw the Cyclones to within one.

Mahoney's serve again came into play as she came to the line and kept the Wildcats off balance. On her first serve, ISU got a kill from Hockaday followed by a pair of attack errors from K-State's Izabela Grot to give the Cyclones the sweep.

"I think in games two and three we let up a little bit,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We've done that several times this year, where we wait until its panic time to get into the match and show the energy and aggressiveness that we need to, rather than waiting until our backs are against the wall. This time we came out on top but next time we might not be so fortunate."

Kansas State was led by Vanessa Murray, who notched 12 kills and hit .478. Lauren Mathewson was the only player with double-figure digs, tallying 10 in the loss.

The Wildcats did hold their own at the net, out blocking the Cyclones seven to two.

Iowa State returns to action Wednesday at Texas Tech with its 10th road contest in 12 matches. First serve from Lubbock is slated for 6:30 p.m.