Schaben marks birthday with sweep of Red Raiders

 AMES (Nov. 25) -- Playing on her 21st birthday Saturday afternoon, Iowa State junior Jess Schaben showed why she’s more than just a dominant front row player for the 22nd-ranked Cyclone volleyball team.
 Limited to four kills through the first two sets and eight for the match - below her team-leading set average of 3.28 - Schaben went to work in the back row for a career-high 23 digs as ISU finished the regular season with a 25-20, 25-20, 25-15 sweep of Texas Tech at Hilton Coliseum.
 “I wasn’t getting as many kills as I wanted, so to make up for it you’ve got to do something else... and they hit at me a lot so that also helped,” said the 6-foot-2 outside hitter of her lofty dig total.
 Saturday’s Senior Day victory improved the Cyclones to 21-6 overall and 11-5 in Big 12 Conference play, tying them for third place in the league standings and extending the program’s streak of nine straight top-three finishes.
 The win may have also contributed to Iowa State being selected as one of 16 host schools for the opening weekend of the NCAA Division I Volleyball Tournament December 1-2. Seeded 14th overall, the Cyclones will host first and second-round regionals, starting with Friday’s first-round matches between Wisconsin (20-9) and Marquette (22-9) at 4 p.m. and ISU vs. Princeton (18-7) at 7 p.m. The winners will meet on Saturday night at 6:30. This is the 12th consecutive tournament appearance for the Cyclones.
 Schaben, a 2015 Harlan Community graduate and the daughter of Bryce and Carrie Schaben, rural Defiance, has played in three regional matches during her career thus far.