MINNEAPOLIS — Entering its fifth consecutive NCAA tournament, Iowa State boasted the experience of a program that has made deep runs into the postseason. However, for the first time in program history, its run ended on the first night of the tournament.

Making their first NCAA tournament appearance, the Creighton Bluejays picked up their biggest win in program history with a five-set, 3-2 (27-25, 16-25, 25-23, 19-25, 15-11) victory over the Cyclones.

“I think the world of the Iowa State program, I think we’re both blue-collar teams,” said Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth after the game Friday, “and I challenged our team to outwork Iowa State tonight, and I think they did a great job.”

The five-setter marked only the second time that Iowa State had gone the distance this season, while the Bluejays were playing in their fifth five-setter of the year.

“I thought they just played very aggressive when they needed to, especially at critical points and end-game, and in game five they just played very aggressive and didn’t act like a team that was here for the first time,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch.

Creighton started the match looking like the more seasoned postseason squad as it jumped out to a 9-4 lead. The Cyclones would battle back to take the lead at 16-15, but Creighton would not go away as it fought back to win the first set 27-25.

Senior outside hitter Alicia Runge led the Bluejays with six kills in the first as senior outside hitter Victoria Henson paced the Cyclones with seven. The Bluejays controlled the net in the first set, leading in team blocks over Iowa State five to one.

After hitting a mere .245 in the first set, Iowa State blazed out to a .447 hitting percentage with no attack errors as the Cyclones evened things up for intermission with a 25-16 win in the second. Henson notched another five kills and sophomore middle blocker Jamie Straube pitched in with four. Averaging just less than 12 assists per set on the season, sophomore setter Alison Landwehr entered the third set already with 31 assists.

Although Iowa State had the momentum heading into the locker room, Creighton exited motivated and ready to take back the lead. The Bluejays leaned on Swea City-native Runge as she swung for five kills in a 25-23 victory in the third.

Iowa State was able to capitalize on some poor hitting by Creighton in the fourth set as the Cyclones outhit the Bluejays .262 to .083 en route to a 25-19 win for the Cyclones.

In the final set, both teams were all square at six apiece until Creighton subbed in Runge. Runge scored four of the next nine points for the Bluejays, and Laurel Sanford put home the final kill as the Bluejays celebrated with a 15-11 final set win.

“I think definitely toward the end it came down to who wanted it more and you’re just playing with as much as you have and you’re fighting as hard as you can,” Landwehr said. “I think we did that, I just think some of the plays just didn’t go our way in the end.”

Looking at the statistics from the match, the Cyclones’ performance looked eerily similar to a Nov. 6 match they played against Missouri in their return to Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones had a higher hitting percentage, more digs, more blocks and more assists than the Tigers yet still lost the match 3-1 (25-19, 24-26, 22-25, 24-26).

“Even though the stats overall are pretty close, I think sometimes the way you play at particular times in the match in particular critical points — say in game one when it’s 24-all — how you play aggressive or not can mean everything,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re hitting .500 or .200, if you’re aggressive in those couple of points that can be the difference.”

On Friday, the Cyclones led the Bluejays in hitting percentage (.245 to .237) and assists (75 to 57) but the most staggering statistic was that Iowa State outdug Creighton 116-89. The 116 digs for the Cyclones is the 11th-highest total in ISU program history. Senior libero Ashley Mass played for the final time in an ISU uniform and she turned in one of the best performances of her career, finishing with a match-high 35 digs.

“I’m not sure how we won because usually we outdig people,” Bernthal Booth said. “I always think that the digs number shows heart, and I think 116 and 35 for Mass shows great heart.”

When the final kill from Creighton’s Laurel Sanford landed on the ISU side of the court, the late-match tension for Iowa State turned to tears as the Cyclones and Bluejays exchanged congratulations at the net.

“Emotion was a big part of this match, I could tell that we fought hard all five games and we just didn’t get lucky in the end,” Mass said as she fought back tears in the postgame news conference.

Leading the Cyclones offensively was another senior in outside hitter Victoria Henson, who finished with a season-high 26 kills in her final match as a Cyclone. Both Henson and Mass were named to the All-Big 12 team earlier in the week and were both AVCA All-Americans last season.

“These two girls are two of the best players in the country,” Johnson-Lynch said of Henson and Mass. “They led us to all the success we’ve had over the last few years and really raised the bar for Iowa State volleyball. We’re really disappointed in this loss, but when you raise the bar so high, anything less than that is disappointing.”

Landwehr finished with a career-high in assists with 62, and junior outside hitter Carly Jenson finished with a double-double as she ended with 17 kills and 21 digs.

Creighton’s Runge and Karisa Almgren led the Bluejays in their first NCAA tournament victory as Runge notched 17 kills and Almgren hit for 14 kills on a .324 clip. Creighton sophomore setter Megan Bober, an All-Missouri Valley Conference selection, picked up a double-double with 46 assists and 11 digs.

“I think maybe there was a little bit of underestimation [of Creighton.] I think they played a great game and we just kind of expected to go play Minnesota tomorrow night,” Jenson said. “I thought maybe our focus was more on Minnesota and not as much on Creighton, and that’s probably why we lost.”

Creighton moved on to play the No. 10-seed Gophers on Saturday night, where the Bluejays lost 3-0 (25-19, 30-28, 25-20). The Cyclones end their season 20-9 and fall to 9-6 all-time in NCAA tournament play.

“You can’t take for granted when you do advance because you have to be good to advance,” Johnson-Lynch said. “A lot of people have told me it’s easier to get to the top than to stay at the top and maintain, so we have to continue to work very hard and fight to get back there and not take for granted that it’s just going to happen because we’re Iowa State or because we’ve done it before.”