The 3-1 loss to Texas only lingered for about 15 hours for Iowa State as the regular season ended and the NCAA Tournament field was announced at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Players, coaches and fans gathered at West Cyde Wings in Ames to view the NCAA Selection Show, during which the Cyclones were announced as a team in the Seattle region. They will play Creighton on Friday in Minneapolis. The Cyclones last played Creighton on Sept. 2, 2008, when Iowa State traveled to Omaha and won in four sets (22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-16).

“To me it doesn’t matter who you play, where you go, when you play, we’re just so excited to get this part of the season underway,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch.

The Cyclones will return to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season and will be back in Minneapolis for the first and second rounds, just as they were in 2008.

Also in Minneapolis next weekend will be two familiar Midwest opponents as North Dakota State (20-10) and the No. 10 seed and host team Minnesota (24-8) will play in the other first-round matchup. Iowa State defeated North Dakota State 3-1 on Sept. 3 at Ames High School, and the Cyclones fell to Minnesota last season 3-1 in the Diet Coke Classic in Minneapolis.

“I think it’s good, it’s about what we were expecting,” Johnson-Lynch said of the team’s draw. “Those are all really good teams. We’re pretty familiar with both Minnesota and North Dakota State, but again I don’t know much about Creighton’s personnel, so that will be something we try to learn about in the next few days.”

Johnson-Lynch and the Cyclones will get their third opportunity this season to have at least five days to prepare before taking the drive up Interstate 35 to Minneapolis.

“I think we’ll have a good week of practice, I think we’ll have a lot more energy this week and just be excited to get going,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Playing great vs. No. 8

Following three consecutive victories over unranked opponents, the Cyclones hosted one of the nation’s hottest teams when the No. 8 Longhorns came into town. Texas (22-5, 17-2 in Big 12) was riding a 14-match win streak when it came to Hilton Coliseum on Saturday.

Despite coming out on the losing end of the match, Johnson-Lynch and the team were pleased with how they competed in their regular season finale.

“I think we played the best that we’ve played in a while,” said senior libero Ashley Mass. “I think tonight kind of showed that we can play with all of these top teams, we’re right there, and we should be peaking at the right time.”

The Longhorns entered the match with the top hitting percentage in the Big 12, .314, and the top two individual percentages with Rachael Adams and Jennifer Doris, who are hitting at .448 and .447.

“I don’t know another team comparable to them as far as offense,” said senior outside hitter Victoria Henson. “They’re real aggressive with their swings, they’re all athletic and they hit pretty hard and pretty high.”

That aggressiveness is something the Cyclones are hoping they can improve on as they head into the NCAA Tournament.

“I feel like there were a lot of plays where we had a chance to hit the ball over or a chance to get a kill, and we were just kind of tentative or not quite as aggressive as we should have been,” Mass said. “I feel like those couple points can make a game.”

It was only the second time that Iowa State, under Johnson-Lynch, had ended its regular season with a match against a ranked opponent. The last time was in 2007 when it beat no. 21 Oklahoma in four sets at Hilton Coliseum. The week after that Oklahoma victory, the Cyclones qualified for their first of three consecutive trips to the Sweet Sixteen.

“I’m sure we’re not going to start off playing an easy team that is ranked in the top 16, but I think we can just feed off the energy and emotion from [this match] and carry it over to the next one.” Henson said.

So long to the seniors

In their last match at Hilton Coliseum, Henson and Mass once again led the Cyclones in kills and digs like they have done so many times over their four-year careers. Henson, the school’s all-time leader in kills, now sits at 1,700 career kills, and Mass, the school and Big 12 all-time leader in digs, ended the night with 2,259 career digs. After the match, Henson, Mass, setter Cassie Pratt and former player Rachel Williams were honored with framed jerseys and a video commemorating their Cyclone careers.

“Just watching the video, I was thinking ‘Boy they’re going to be hard to replace,'” Johnson-Lynch said of Henson and Mass. “They’re just such special players. They’re two of the best players in the country and beyond that just great people, great students and great role models.

“We’re going to miss them a ton, and hopefully we can send them off in style over the next few weeks,” Johnson-Lynch said.

The Cyclones begin their postseason Friday in Minneapolis when they take on Creighton at 4:30 p.m at the Sports Pavilion.