Excitement is surely brewing within Trudy Vande Berg for her first game with the Cyclones this season.

It will be even more exciting for the ISU assistant coach, as Iowa State will be facing Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Vande Berg’s alma mater.

After six years of coaching, she will face off against the program to which  she attributes so much of her skills.

“I’m very excited about it, but I’m not going to treat it differently than any other game,” Vande Berg said. “It’s obviously going to be different because I owe so much of my career to what I learned there.”

Friday night at Hilton Coliseum, Vande Berg will represent the Cyclones as middle blocking coach against the previous assistant coach she had during her senior year at UWM, Susie Johnson, who is now in her third year as the Panthers’ head coach.

After watching game film, Vande Berg noticed similarities between the Panthers now and when she played with them, giving her some insight heading into the matchup.

“A lot of the things they do are similar to when what we were working on when I was there,” Vande Berg said. “They have great passing, great defense, fast offense and go after teams with serving.”