The ISU volleyball squad will try to gain another in-state win for the “title” of intrastate champion. If the Cyclones succeed, it will come at the expense of an aggressive Northern Iowa team Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum.

The Panthers come to Ames with a legacy of good volleyball and the remnants of a stinging 3-1 win over Iowa State last season.

The Cyclones (8-10 overall, 1-9 in the Big 12) are prepared for the rivalry this year after defeating Drake earlier this season.

“The in-state rivalry is always huge, and this is one of the best we have with a long tradition,” said ISU head coach Linda Crum. “The sense of rivalry is fun and this is our equation to the Iowa-Iowa State matchup, since we don’t play Iowa this year. There’s a lot of significance to this.”

Northern Iowa is 13-6 overall and 7-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference and won’t come to Ames without a win in its sights. As a consistent team with equal parts physical prowess and scrap, the Panthers will make good competition.

Junior hitter Rachael Tink remains the overwhelming force for Northern Iowa with 3.89 kills a game, as well as leading the squad in service aces.

She is followed by senior Shari Vermeer, who has 3.14 kills a game, and 6-foot-3 junior Stephanie Germann, who averages a hitting percentage of .348.

Sophomore Stephanie May controls the digging category at 3.48 a game, but has Abby Lemek and Tink on her heels with clips of 2.77 and 2.51, respectively.

The team leads the Missouri Valley Conference with 130 service aces, an average of 2 a game. It ranks second with 3.48 blocks a game, a season total of 226.

“They have a good program, but we’ve also built ours up this season,” Crum said. “We keep them in our system and keep refining them.”

Senior Christine Smeele said she knows this year is a different story for the Cyclones.

“We mostly lost to them before because they were ranked, but they lost some good players,” she said. “We will have to watch out for Tink and serve aggressively. Communication is the cohesiveness that we need to take them down.”