Certain sports are “king” in different states. There’s Minnesota hockey, Texas football and Indiana basketball. But in Nebraska, the home state of the three-time national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers, the “queen” sport of the state is volleyball.

“A lot of the little girls growing up in Nebraska want to be volleyball players first, just because that program has had success over the last 20, 30 years,” said ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “So many generations of little girls grow up, and if they’re an athlete, they play volleyball.”

Johnson-Lynch was one of the lucky little girls.

She grew up in Omaha, Neb., an hour northeast of Lincoln, Neb., the home of the Huskers. She went on to play for Nebraska, became a two-time All-American setter and led the Huskers to their first national title in 1995.

Now, Johnson-Lynch along with five players who hail from the Cornhusker state will travel to Lincoln, Neb., on Saturday to square off for the final time in Big 12 conference play against the Huskers before they move to the Big Ten Conference next season.

The No. 12 Cyclones (16-4, 9-3 in Big 12) will take their five-match win streak into one of the rowdiest arenas in college sports, the Nebraska Coliseum, where they face the No. 2 Cornhuskers (19-2, 11-1 in Big 12). The Cornhuskers are coming off a road match against Texas on Wednesday in which the Longhorns won the opening two sets and held on to hand the Huskers a 3-1 defeat; their first Big 12 loss of the season.

“I hope it’s a great match; you always kind of feel like the odds are stacked against you when you go into the Coliseum,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It’s such a hard place to play but I’m sure Nebraska isn’t too happy with the way they played [Wednesday] night, and I imagine they’ll probably be pretty fired up and ready to go.”

In the first match-up this season, Iowa State hosted Nebraska at Ames High in the Big 12 Conference opener. ISU junior and Omaha, Neb., native Carly Jenson led the Cyclones in that match with 17 kills and 17 digs, but it wasn’t enough to match the 17 team blocks by Nebraska, who beat the Cyclones in four sets (25-22, 24-26, 25-23, 28-26).

Although that match was the most recent between these two teams, 373 days ago the Cyclones defeated Nebraska for the first time in program history and handed Nebraska their second home loss in the last 97 matches in a five-set battle at the Nebraska Coliseum. The Coliseum has historically been one of the toughest places in the country to play, as Nebraska averages the most fans in the Big 12 and second-most nationally with an average 4,960 fans at each home contest.

“Some things had to fall in place to win there, and they kind of did last year. We had to play exceptionally well and hope for some breaks from them, and that’s what happened,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I completely realized to have a shot there you have to play as well as you’ve played maybe all season.”

ISU sophomore middle blocker and Tecumseh, Neb., native Jamie Straube notched 11 kills and hit .375 while also posting a career-high eight block assists in the road win over Nebraska last season.

“It’s a tough place to play, but I think with [the win from last year] in the back of our minds; that we’ve done that before, that we’ve played in that environment and we’ve come out with a win, I think that gives us some more confidence going in there,” Straube said.

Heading into Lincoln, the Cyclones are on a five-match winning streak in which they have won 15 of 17 sets. Leading Iowa State has been Straube who has hit for a .473 clip with 21 total blocks over that span. Straube attributes her mid-season success to her work with sophomore setter Alison Landwehr and the experience she has from her freshman season.

“Alison and I have been working really hard on transition and just connecting with that, a lot of it is getting through the second half of the season,” Straube said. “I know last year this was a tough part getting through the middle so I know from experience that I just have to push hard.”

The Huskers are once again one of the most balanced teams in the Big 12, leading the conference in opponent’s hitting percentage, kills, assists and blocks. Nebraska’s 6-foot-4-inch junior middle blocker Brooke Delano leads the conference in hitting percentage, .441, and blocks, 1.45 per set.

“If we win it means a lot, if we lose, I think people expected us to lose,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We just want to try and go in there loose and not feel the pressure.”

Adding a little fuel to the fire in this rivalry was a comment made by Nebraska sophomore setter Lauren Cook, the daughter of coach John Cook, who spoke with the Daily Nebraskan after their 3-1 loss to Texas.

“You know, the first thing we said when we hit the locker room was ‘we feel sorry for Iowa State,'” Cook said. “They’re getting our best volleyball on Saturday for sure.”

Word about the article traveled quickly amongst the Cyclone players and coaching staff as they prepared for practice Thursday.

“I think that they should be ready for us too because we’re ready to play them,” Straube said. “I think when we played them here we felt like that game kind of slipped away from us a little bit, so we’re ready to see what we can do the second time.”

“I’m sure that they don’t want to have two losses in one week, but I know we’re playing better and better each week, so I think it’s just going to be a great game,” Jenson said.

“I think there was frustration from their match, and they were probably ticked off, so we better be ready,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Match time in Lincoln is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and it will be streamed live on cyclones.com.