This week, the student athletes on the ISU volleyball team have an interesting balancing act to perform.

Like other students, they have to prepare for finals. But they also have to prepare for their first-ever NCAA Regional.

Senior middle blocker Erin Boeve, however, said she is more than happy to do that.

“This being the final week of classes, still having practice is awesome,” Boeve said. “Trying to balance school and also going to the Regionals is an awesome accomplishment.”

The Cyclones (19-13) reached that Regional with a 3-2 win over 16th-ranked San Diego on Friday and a sweep of eighth-ranked Wisconsin on the Badgers’ home floor in Madison on Saturday. That win avenged a 3-0 loss to the Badgers in the second round of last season’s NCAA Tournament and earned Iowa State a trip back to Madison for the first round of 16 match in program history.

The Cyclones will be taking on a California Golden Bears (24-7) team that won the Durham, N.C., Sub-Regional with 3-1 wins over Liberty and host Duke. The programs have never met, but both reached the NCAA Tournament last season, with the Cyclones making the second round and the Golden Bears reaching the round of 16. California finished fourth in the Pac-10 and Iowa State finished fifth in the Big 12.

Coach Christy Johnson said the Golden Bears do not show many similarities offensively to their previous opponent, Wisconsin.

“Wisconsin is probably a little more balanced offensively,” Johnson said. “They [California] have two outstanding outside hitters and those are a big part of their offense.”

Unprecedented

accomplishments

Along with their first ever trip to a Regional, Iowa State accomplished a few other program firsts in Madison last weekend.

The Badgers, who were rated eighth in the country coming into the match, were the highest-ranked team the Cyclones have ever beaten. The victory also continued a streak of three consecutive wins over nationally rated teams.

Johnson said wins like this do so many things for an emerging program.

“You talk about your goals to recruits and you talk about where you think you can be, but to have the credibility to say it’s happening,” Johnson said, “I can’t keep up with the e-mails and text messages and phone calls.”

Iowa State is now in a remaining field that includes all of the top-four seeds, but has the prestige of being a team that knocked out one of the five top-16 seeds that lost on Saturday. The Cyclones also appeared in the CSTV/AVCA Coaches Poll for the first time in history at No. 18 Monday.

“It’s given our program legitimacy and put us on the map,” Johnson said. “Coming in three years ago, I thought maybe Sweet Sixteen in five to seven years, and to see it turn around that fast is exciting.”

Hilton North

Iowa State will be playing its first Regional match, but it will be playing in a place that it has become somewhat accustomed to over the last two seasons.

The Cyclones have played at the UW Fieldhouse in Madison more than any of the other teams in their region in that time period.

Iowa State has played four NCAA Tournament matches there over the last two seasons and played a match there during the spring season as well. In those matches, the Cyclones are 4-1.

Iowa State is also able to travel to the same location it traveled to last weekend, unlike California, who had to go from the West Coast to the East Coast, back, and now has to make a trek to the Midwest.

Boeve said the Cyclones may have a little higher comfort level than some of the other teams.

“I feel that we have a little bit of a home-court advantage,” Boeve said. “Coming in I think we’ll be a little bit more comfortable playing there again.”

The time for Friday’s match has been set at 5 p.m. and the Michigan State-Nebraska match will follow at 7 p.m. The winners will meet at 8 p.m. Saturday, with the match being broadcast on ESPNU.