With Nebraska and Northern Iowa on the schedule, it would be easy for the Cyclones to overlook North Dakota State.

The Bison (6-3) aren’t to be overlooked, though. North Dakota State has won the Horizon league the past three seasons and is coming off a 20-11 season last year. They went 14-4 in conference play.

“We need to remember that North Dakota State is a really good team,” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “North Dakota State is very talented. They’re athletic. They usually win their conference. You always think you’re as good as your last match, so we can’t have this huge win against Florida then come out flat.”

All three of the Bison’s losses have come on the road. No. 17 Iowa State (7-0, 0-0 Big 12) is confident after knocking off No. 9 Florida in the previous game.

Chrissy Knuth and Megan Lambertson led North Dakota State in hitting percentage at .295 and .386. Lambertson is leading the team again with a .393 hitting percentage.

Setter Jennifer Lopez is going to be on the Cyclones’ radar. Lopez has eight serving aces and averages 10 assists per set.

“I know their setter can dump a lot, so we’re going to have to keep an eye on that,” Johnson-Lynch said. “They run a pretty fast offense. We have to be alert to the setter when she’s front row and back row. She’s dumping a lot.”

To counter this, Iowa State will try to get a good blocking formation set up while being under pressure due to the speed of the offense.

The win against Florida was a big confidence booster for the team, but the euphoria can’t last too long. While the Bison aren’t the caliber of opponent the Gators are, the let-up dynamic is always a factor.

“We handled ourselves really well,” said sophomore libero Kristen Hahn. “I think that’s just one step for us to what we want to do. We need to be doing those things. We expected to win.”

The physical play of the Cyclones has been an effective weapon over their opponents.

“It’s going to be a big thing because our preseason is so hard,” Hahn said. “Our no-conference season is insane. Us having to play two games this weekend is going to make us even tougher.”