AMES – Houston gave Iowa State a drubbing in a clean sweep. The Cyclones’ losing streak now extends to a season-high five games.

Even with a struggling offense, redshirt junior Lilly Wachholz and freshman Rachel Van Gorp led the team in kills with nine and eight respectively to keep the Cyclones afloat. 

Senior Brooke Stonestreet had her 15th straight match with double-digit digs totaling 10 on the night. 

Houston block line gives Iowa State trouble

All night, Houston gave Iowa State huge problems offensively. The Cougars finished the night with 13 blocks to stymie the Cyclones. 

“It was a little bit of decision making,” Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. “Our coverage wasn’t that great tonight either.” 

After a collapse in set two, where the Cyclones gave up 10 of the final 11 points to lose the set, they followed up set three with a poor hitting performance.

“Just keep swinging high, and when they are blocking us well, we just need to cover better,” Wachholz said. “As a hitter, you just have to keep going after it and swinging high even when you are being blocked,”

Iowa State finished with a -.118 hitting percentage in set three, largely due to five blocks from Houston. Across the entire match, the Cyclones posted a .099 hitting percentage. 

“You just got to get a kill at some point,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Our offense was just not humming tonight.”

Cooke’s aces posed a problem for Iowa State

Houston is known for another impressive server in Lily Barron, who leads the Big 12 with 56 aces at .50 aces per set. On Wednesday, it was Annie Cooke who gave the Cyclones problems. 

“I thought they had some really tough servers, and when you have a tough server, you can’t get kills,” Johnson-Lynch said. 

Cooke had back-to-back aces in set three after being the server that finished off Iowa State in set two.  Cooke finished with a match-leading six aces and 27 assists. 

Losing streak extends to five games

It’s no secret Iowa State is in a lull right now, losing five in a row. The Cyclones now have a 9-13 record on the season.

“When you’re struggling, people start blaming, pointing fingers and just show their frustration,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We have to be bigger than that.”

The most matches Johnson-Lynch has lost in a season is 15, and that was back in her first season in 2005. If she wants to stay away from eclipsing that mark, the Cyclones will need to win four of their remaining six games. 

“We’re preaching playing hard, no matter what,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing or what the score is, we just want to be proud of how hard we are playing.”

This season has been riddled with injuries, with Iowa State losing preseason All-Big 12 pick Nayeli Gonzalez to a knee injury. Junior Maya Duckworth and sophomore Pam McCune have been on and off the court too, so Iowa State is missing some much needed offensive firepower. 

“I think it’s just putting your head down and getting to work,” Wachholz said, “Right now, you can’t have any excuses. Just keep grinding away and let it go.”

The Cyclones have a weeklong break before they are back in action against Colorado at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday in Ames.