Head coach Cathy George said it was nice that the game was used to spread awareness about a disease that takes the lives of thousands of Americans every year.

“We’ve all been affected by breast cancer in some way, shape or form,” George said. “It’s such a widespread disease and it’s great that we can help. Really getting the awareness out there, sold some t-shirts, different things that went on. I think it’s a great way for us to chip in.”

Senior setter Kristen Kelsay added that the the fight against breast cancer was bigger than the game.

“It’s something to honor those people who are fighting, who have fought, who have died because of breast cancer,” Kelsay said. “It was great to play tonight for such a bigger cause than ourselves.”

Senior outside hitter Lauren Wicinski scored 12 kills on .571 hitting and added four digs, three blocks and two service aces. Chloe Reinig scored seven kills on .636 hitting and added a pair of blocks.

MSU cruised to victories in the first two sets, but sloppy play almost cost them the third set. They racked up errors as Iowas almost prevented the sweep.

“I know we had a lot of service errors,” George said. “They were really unnecessary and I thought they were a little careless. We dropped off somewhere in the middle of game three. We need to become more disciplined, and we finally did kind of kick that back into gear and finish the game.”

MSU jumped to a 10-3 lead early in the third set, but that would end up being their largest lead. Iowa went on an 9-4 run to cut the lead to 14-12. MSU went on a run of their own to increase the lead to 22-16, but Iowa wouldn’t give up.

The Hawkeyes went on a 6-1 run to cut the lead to 23-21. Two Iowa errors sealed the win for MSU, but Kelsay admitted that MSU let Iowa back into the game during the third set.

“They got hot, they feed off that emotion and we gave them a lot of points,” Kelsay said. “We had a lot of mis-serves, a lot of errors, and they fed off that. They came out and took it to us. It was good because it tested us. The fans felt it, everyone felt it. Like ‘it’s go time, we have to finish this.’”

With the No. 9 Nebraska tomorrow, the third set provided a final challenge for the Spartans as they look to beat another national powerhouse tomorrow.

Moster said the team will look to learn from the third set as they move into Saturday.

“Control the things you can control, but still do it at a high level,” Moster said. “That’s the standard that we set for ourselves and that’s something that is going to be a battle every single day. Really making sure that that’s a focus for the team instead of letting those runs that you saw in that third set.”