There won’t be much of a break for the ISU volleyball team during Thanksgiving vacation.

While many students will be catching up on sleep or visiting friends, the Cyclones will be on the road to take on two ranked opponents before coming home to face a surging Colorado team.

Iowa State will travel to Austin, Texas, on Saturday to take on No. 8 Texas. Then Tuesday, the Cyclones will be in Norman, Okla., to face the 14th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners.

Finally, the Cyclones return to Ames on Nov. 25 for the Colorado contest, the final match of the regular season.

The tough schedule ahead made Wednesday night’s victory over Texas Tech even more important.

“We pretty much had to win this match,” said coach Christy Johnson. “With a win [against Texas Tech], it takes a little bit of pressure off of us.”

The reason the match was so critical is that it guarantees the Cyclones will finish above .500 in the Big 12, which should be good enough to get them into the NCAA tournament.

It also might have added benefits going into the matches over break.

The team has played its best all season when the players are loose and relaxed, and the insurance win over Texas Tech should help them loosen up.

“Hopefully the pressure is off us a little, so we breathe a sigh of relief and relax a little bit,” Johnson said.

Playing on the road against ranked opponents, the Cyclones will be a serious underdog, but in Johnson’s opinion, that can be a positive.

“The good thing is we are the underdogs, so that gives us a lot of freedom to play as hard as we can, and I’m sure that is the attitude we’ll go in with,” Johnson said.

“We are the underdogs, so we can afford to just go after it.”

The game with Colorado appeared to be a sure win for the Cyclones a few weeks ago – until Colorado became the first team to beat No. 1 Nebraska this season. The Buffaloes outlasted the Cornhuskers, 3-2, on Nov. 11 and opened the eyes of many around the country.

Colorado had been flying under the radar up to that point, receiving little national attention. The Buffaloes, however, are suddenly sitting in fifth place in the Big 12 and are a team Iowa State will have to take seriously.

“We definitely have three tough games,” Johnson said. “We just have to get back to doing what we do best.”