The anticipation for the annual clash of the Iowa State and Iowa football teams hangs thick in the air. However, the Cyclones will have more than one team heading directly into the hawk’s nest this weekend.

The ISU volleyball players will kick off the Cy-Hawk series Friday night as they attempt to set a winning precedent for this weekend in Iowa City.

Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch remains nonchalant about kicking off the Cy-Hawk series, but the excitement of facing the second of two in-state rivals in one week is contagious.

“I don’t think kicking off the series is necessarily a big deal, but the match itself is a big deal,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It’s the same weekend that the football teams play, so there’s just going to be so much buzz, and we’re going to be a small part of that. But we’re just really excited to play that match.”

Johnson-Lynch is never one to take an opponent lightly, even after the Cyclones met and defeated No. 18 Northern Iowa, the other in-state rival, Wednesday night.

The Cyclones swept the Panthers 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-22) in front of a rowdy crowd that packed Ames High School, bumping their record to 6-1.

Despite this success, the match against unranked Iowa won’t be considered an easy win, particularly with the different climate of the rivalry.

“The whole match concerns me for sure,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We have to make sure that we stay composed. Especially when you travel to their arena, you have to make sure, with the crowd and that kind of distraction that can be there, that we just stay composed and worry about our side of the net.”

The crowd awaiting the Cyclones for their first away game of the season, at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena, might not be as friendly as the fans at Ames High School, but there will definitely be excitement in the air.

“I think that any crowd creates a good energy,” said junior middle blocker Debbie Stadick. “Sometimes it can be intimidating, but the louder it is the more it just makes you want to go at it. It does matter whose crowd it is, but I know we’re going to have some great fans there, and they’re hopefully going to be as loud as all the Iowa fans, too.”

The Hawkeyes (5-1) have won two tournament championships in the past two weekends, their only loss coming from Wake Forest. Friday’s match against Iowa State will mark the first ranked team Iowa has faced this season.

With the Cyclones hitting at .330 against Northern Iowa on Wednesday night, and with new starters like junior Carly Jenson and sophomore Alison Landwehr hitting their strides, the team will need to keep the momentum going into the weekend.

“I think, especially with this confidence we have right now, we’re just going to keep rolling,” Stadick said. “We’re going to keep making sure we’re staying crisp with our ball handling and staying high percentage offensively in our decisions, and just being crisp all around.”

If Cyclone fans want to head to Iowa City early, they can catch the volleyball team in action as it kicks off the Cy-Hawk series at 7 p.m. Friday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.