No. 8 Texas Holds Off No. 16 Cyclones

Saturday, November 27

Ames, Iowa

6:30 PM

Iowa State

Texas

No. 8 Texas Holds Off No. 16 Cyclones

11.27.2010 | Volleyball

By: cyclones.com

STATS

AMES, Iowa - In front of 3,085 on Senior Night, the No. 16 Cyclones (20-8, 13-7 Big 12) fought hard but came up short, falling to No. 8 Texas (23-5, 18-2) in four sets, 25-22, 23-25, 25-27, 19-25.

"They have really nice athletes at every position and while most teams have one or two go-to players," Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. "Texas has one at every position, people that have the ability to take over matches. They are really physical and we knew that we had to out serve and ball-handle them to win that match; I don't know that we did that. We did that at times, especially during the first game but we didn't play good enough defense to keep them off-balance."

Seniors Victoria Henson and Ashley Mass were true to form on the night. Henson recorded her third-straight double-double with 21 kills and 18 digs. She finishes the regular season with 1,700 career kills. For her part, Mass collected 21 digs, her 43rd career match with at least 20.

After hitting a gaudy .438 and posting three blocks in their game-one win, the Cyclones tapered off, especially on defense. In game two, Iowa State had two blocks and didn't record another until grabbing three in the fourth set.

The Longhorns came up with key blocks throughout the night, finishing with 12. It is the third consecutive match in which a Cyclone opponent has had over 10 blocks.

"It felt like they had a few blocks late in the match," Johnson-Lynch said. "They are such a physical team that the block becomes a major part of the match. 12 blocks in four games is not bad so at least we were not constantly hitting into the block. They are very physical, a great athletic team."

Although they didn't walk away with the win, the Cyclones did find their aggressiveness after struggling against lesser foes in the last few matches. Jamie Straube, Alison Landwehr, Deb Stadick and Henson all contributed to timely blocks and were able to get a hand on many of the Longhorns' attacks, slowing down the Texas offense and keeping the match close.

"Even though we lost, this was probably one of the better matches we played in a few weeks," Johnson-Lynch said. "That is encouraging, knowing that we are going into the tournament being happy with how we played overall. We didn't have the offensive options and didn't slow them down enough. For the most part, I felt we played a pretty good match."

Game one started well for the Cyclones who jumped to a 10-2 start before a late rally by the Longhorns cut the lead to three. Iowa State faced four set points before claiming the 1-0 lead, winning the set 25-22.

A much closer game two saw seven ties and five lead changes as the two teams battled it out before the Longhorns scored the final two points to win 25-23.

The third set was more of the same as the Cyclones took an 18-15 lead before five-straight points by the Longhorns made it 20-18 in favor of the visitors. The squads traded ties and leads before Texas took the 2-1 lead after three set points, 27-25.

On Sunday, the Cyclones will be at West Cyde Wings from 2-2:30 p.m. to watch the NCAA Selection Show. Fans are invited to come out and join the team as the Cyclones find out where and who they will face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.