Iowa State gets another shot at taking down a ranked team when they face off against No. 18 TCU at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
In a match with little offense for the Cyclones, junior Faith DeRonde continued to excel as she had her fourth straight game with double-digit kills against No. 17 Baylor. Redshirt sophomore Lilly Wachholz had the next highest at nine kills.
Since the injury to sophomore Nayeli Gonzalez, DeRonde and Wachholz have stepped up tremendously. DeRonde leads the Cyclones with 44 kills in the last three matches with Wachholz close behind with 34 kills.
Senior Brooke Stonestreet moved into ninth in program history in digs with 19 digs to move her total to 1,341. Another name that has been climbing up the rankings is junior Morgan Brandt. Brandt is just four assists away from breaking into the top 10 all-time in program history.
Iowa State has had trouble with ranked teams all year. The Cyclones have lost to Kansas, BYU and Baylor who were all ranked at the time of their matchup.
Even though the Horned Frogs are ranked, history favors the Cyclones in this matchup. Iowa State leads the all-time series 20-4, with all the games played under head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch.
Johnson-Lynch is still chasing the third-most wins in Big 12 history as she is one win away from 208.
TCU is led by standout outside hitter Melanie Parra, who has 394 kills on the season and is ranked second in the nation at 5.25 kills per set. Parra also leads the conference in aces per set, attacks per set, points, points per set, attacks and kills.
The last standout player Iowa State had to face was Kansas State outside hitter Aliyah Carter, who gave a multitude of problems for Iowa State to deal with. The Cyclones will have their hands full with Parra.
On defense, Sarah Sylvester will give the Cyclones some trouble on offense. She has 96 blocks on the season at 1.26 per set.
TCU is 15-5 overall on the season and 7-3 in conference play. They are coming off of a sweep against Colorado but lost to then No. 23 Baylor in five sets the previous match.
The match against TCU will start at 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+.
