No. 14 Cyclones Fall to Texas A&M on Senior Night

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AMES, Iowa - The No. 14 Iowa State volleyball team ended its regular season falling to Texas A&M 3-1 (25-10, 22-25, 20-25, 16-25) Saturday evening at Hilton Coliseum. The loss drops the Cyclones to 22-5 overall and 13-3 in the Big 12. The win improves the Aggies to 22-7 overall and 11-5 in conference play.

"A&M is a very good team," Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. "They have an RPI of 18 and they are very athletic. We had chances in the second game we did not take. We did not look very organized and we are going to have to figure out why. I think they defended us very well and we just didn't respond."

Hannah Willms had one of the top evenings of her Cyclone career, posting a career-high 17 kills on a career-high 41 attacks at a .268 hitting percentage. The redshirt freshman also contributed on the defensive end with three block assists.

"She is a gamer and she is competitive," Johnson-Lynch stated. "Even when the team got a little rattled, she kept being aggressive. She came up big for us, no question."

Senior Carly Jenson posted her 27th career double-double of her career, her 15th of 2011, with 12 kills and 16 digs. Jamie Straube had an all-around busy night with seven kills, two service aces, a solo block and four block assists. Kristen Hahn led the Iowa State defense with 22 digs and Rachel Hockaday posted a season-high 19 digs. Alison Landwehr also posted double-figure digs with 11.

The Cyclones started the match on fire, running away with the first set win behind three kills each from Willms and Straube. A&M failed to post a hitting percentage collecting just seven kills and recording seven attack errors.

"They were not good the first game," Johnson-Lynch noted. "They passed bad, the committed a lot of errors and were trying to do too much the first game. They were able to respond after that."

The Aggies recovered in the second set on their way to winning, 25-22. Texas A&M did it with defense, posting seven total team blocks in the set with Elise Hendrickson posting four block assists and Lindsey Miller recording two solo blocks and a block assist. Alisa Kastmo stepped up for A&M posting four kills in the set. Willms led the Cyclones with four kills while Jenson and Straube each had three.

The Texas A&M offense stepped up in the third set, hitting .278 on its way to a 25-20 set win. Miller led the Aggie offense with four kills on six attacks while Kastmo added three kills of her own. Willms led the Cyclones again with five kills while Jenson and Tenisha Matlock added three kills.

A&M dominated the third set, hitting .389 on its way to a comfortable 25-16 set win to clinch the match. Kastmo added four more kills in the set while Kelsey Black sent in four powerful kills. Willms and Jenson led the Cyclones with five kills apiece in the fourth.

"We have to keep this in perspective," Johnson-Lynch concluded. "We went through one of the best conferences in the country with three losses. That is amazing in itself considering we lost two All-Americans [after last season]. We had an off night and that is going to happen from time-to-time. It stinks that it happened at home and on senior night, but we have to forget it and move on."

Kastmo led the Aggies with 12 kills while Miller added nine and Black posted seven. Chelsea Ringel landed three aces and Allie Sawatzky had two of her own. Miller led the blocking effort with three solos and three block assists. Elise Hendrickson posted four block assists. Libero Megan Pendergast had 19 digs while Black posted 12 and Sarah Grace added 11.

The Cyclones will find out their NCAA Tournament destination Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. CST on ESPNU. The Iowa State volleyball team will be watching the show at Johnny's at Hilton Coliseum. The public is welcome to join the Cyclones with doors opening at 4:45 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Kristen Hahn

Kristen Hahn

Rachel Hockaday

Rachel Hockaday

Carly Jenson

Carly Jenson

Alison Landwehr

Alison Landwehr

Tenisha Matlock

Tenisha Matlock

Jamie Straube

Jamie Straube

Hannah Willms

Hannah Willms

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