Iowa State Tops OU Volleyball, 3-1

NORMAN, Okla. - For the third straight match, the Oklahoma volleyball squad lost in four games after dropping a 3-1 (24-30, 29-31, 30-28, 28-30) decision to Iowa State Saturday inside the Howard McCasland Field House. With the win, Iowa State pushed its overall mark to 12-8 and 5-4 in conference play while the Sooners fell to 5-13 and 0-9 in the Big 12.

Oklahoma hung with the Cyclones statistically, hitting at a .230 clip to ISU's .277 and posting more kills (68) than the Cyclones (66). However, OU's 34 errors to ISU's 28 were costly. Defensively, the Sooners out-dug the Cyclones, who are second in the Big 12 in digs per game, 34-31. ISU's largest advantage came at the net where it recorded 16.5 blocks to OU's 13.5.

Boxscore: ISU 3, OU 1 | 2005 Season Stats

Oklahoma came out of the gates strong, taking a 19-14 lead in game one before Iowa State responded with a 16-5 run to take the first frame.

In game two, the Sooners tied it up twice before taking the lead at 21-20 thanks to a Sarah Weiland kill. The game would see three more ties, including 29-29, before Iowa State rallied to win game two.

The Sooners responded in game three from a 19-22 deficit and took the lead at 24-23 off an Eliane Santos kill. Iowa State would tie it up for more times before Oklahoma closed the game off of two consecutive kills to win the third frame.

OU took the lead in game four at 5-4 and never lost it until the Cyclones rallied back to a 20-19 lead. The Sooners were unable to gain back momentum and the Cyclones took the set and the match.

Despite dropping its 10th straight match, Oklahoma had four Sooners tally double-digit kills in the four-game match. Junior Eliane Santos posted a match-high 21 kills on a .366 clip. Fellow junior Joanna Schmitt followed with 13 kills.

Sophomore Anna Stadel continued her impressive hitting, pounding 12 kills on a team-high .381 clip. Sophomore Sarah Weiland also recorded 11 kills on a .200 clip.

The 6-2 offense the Sooners have been running with setters Julie Chester and Rachel Jackson was scrapped in the final two games with Chester solely running the offense. Chester finished with 43 assists while Jackson added 16 assists in the first two games.

Defensively, sophomore libero Hanna Sharp led the Sooners with seven digs while Chester collected six. Schmitt and junior Anna Monsen collected five each. Monsen made her first appearance in the starting lineup at libero after starting the final three games against Baylor earlier this week. However, Sharp took over the starting libero duties in the final three frames.

At the net, Stadel and Santos led the squad with six block assists each while senior Gabriela Tonon added five.

Other notables included sophomore Lindsay Schuessler's appearance in the final game which marked her first Big 12 match to play this season. The defensive specialist added an ace to the Sooner scoring.

Oklahoma will hit the road this Wednesday, Oct. 19 for a 6:30 p.m. match up against No. 7 Missouri, OU's sixth ranked team to play this season.

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