Forget Hilton Magic. 

All the ISU volleyball team needed was a little Ames High Magic.

The Cyclones faced the No. 18 UNI Panthers on Wednesday night in the local high school gym, and sent the ladies from Cedar Falls home in straight sets.

And make no mistake, the makeshift home-court advantage came in handy in a big way.

“I thought it was a great atmosphere,” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “The players couldn’t hear us at all. It was very loud and very intimidating.”

Johnson-Lynch didn’t even need to point out how intimidating it was. Iowa State came out firing and blew away a really good team in the first set.

When the flood of 2010 hit in August, there was a lot of uncertainty for the Cyclones. They had a good thing going in Hilton, with school record attendance and a winning vibe that hadn’t really been in the building for several years.

I’d venture to guess fans — and even the coaches and players themselves — saw losing Hilton as a very bad thing.

Now, Johnson-Lynch and her players relish the opportunity to bring opponents into the sweatbox that is the Ames High gymnasium.

“It’s hard when you come into a gym and the crowd is so close,” Johnson-Lynch said. “You do feel a lot of pressure.”

She isn’t kidding about how close the crowd is, either.

The front row of the student section is about three feet from the sideline, and if you know anything about the student sections at ISU sporting events, you know how loud it can get.

And the students got as rowdy for this game as they do for basketball games, although obviously in different ways. It’s cool to watch fellow students support a sport that isn’t the most popular and rarely grabs the front page.

“I think our fans are the loudest,” said sophomore setter Alison Landwehr. “And to put our fans in a gym like this is a hard environment to come in to.”

It wasn’t just the students who were loud either. Whenever the Cyclones go to match point, or in the case of the third and final set, a few points before, all the Cyclone fans would rise and cheer on the team.

Throughout the match, Landwehr and the coaches had to use hand signals many times just to communicate over the crowd or the band.

“We love it,” Landwehr said. “I think [it’s] definitely [an advantage].”

And when Nebraska and Texas come to Ames, Johnson-Lynch and company see their temporary home as a huge advantage.

So who needs Hilton, right?

Don’t get me wrong, playing in an arena obviously brings in more people and has to be a cool environment in which to play.

But the flood brought an unexpected blessing to these ladies, so at least someone got something good out of it.

If Iowa State uses the home-court advantage the way it did against Northern Iowa, I don’t see it losing too often — if at all — at home.

So watch out, Big 12, the Cyclone volleyball team has Ames High Magic on its side.