OMAHA, Neb. — The Iowa State volleyball team made school history Sunday afternoon with a bid to play in the NCAA Tournament. The invitation was the first ever for a Cyclone volleyball squad.

Iowa State (21-11) will host the first round match against the University of Idaho. The match will be played 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Hilton Coliseum. If the Cyclones win that match, they would travel to South Bend, Ind., to take on Notre Dame.

ISU head coach Jackie Nunez said the team is thrilled to be in the tournament.

“We’re in the best-case scenario. We’re in the tournament and we’re hosting the first round match,” she said.

The NCAA bid should help heal the wound inflicted by No. 1 rated Nebraska during a three-game shutout Saturday night in the Big Eight championship.

With approximately 4,500 red-clad Nebraska fans chanting “Go Big Red” in the background, the Cyclones struggled to stay alive against the mighty Husker team.

Nunez said the essential home state advantage for Nebraska and the huge crowd were not factors in the Cyclones’ defeat.

“We just didn’t play well. I don’t look at [the hometown crowd] as an excuse. I think it’s just great we had such a large crowd,” Nunez said.

Iowa State only scored 10 points in three games against Nebraska, with the Huskers nearly shutting the Cyclones out with a 15-1 score in the final game.

“We just didn’t do a whole lot to help ourselves,” Nunez said. “We struggled to get anything generated. They were digging balls off the back of their heads.”

Senior outside hitter Kirstin Hugdahl, who claimed a position on the Big Eight All-Tournament team, said the Cyclones were tired after a long, hard-fought victory against Colorado the previous night. Hugdahl also said the Cyclones were ready to “play hard and play well” against Nebraska, a team the Cyclones failed to beat this season.

Nebraska’s swift win came with nearly a 50 percent attack rate, including twice as many kills as the Cyclones.

The sparse representation of Cyclone fans were dealt an exhilarating match Friday when the Cyclones’ avenged last year’s tournament loss to Colorado and overcame a nine-match losing streak in the tournament.

Both teams attacked the net to provide an intense match for the crowd of 4,000. With two close thriller games, 15-17, 15-9, 17-15 and 15-11, ISU toiled to send the Buffaloes home.

Senior hitter Steph McCannon said of the hard-earned win, “It’s a great feeling. We have worked really hard for this, and I think we deserve it.”

McCannon dug up 37 Buffalo hits, marking the fourth time this season she has had 30-plus digs. McCannon’s dig totals came after a Big Eight single-match attack record of 106 swings by Colorado’s Rachel Wacholder.

The netters’ season dig total of 2,304 broke the old Iowa State record and ranked fourth on the Big Eight charts, which later moved to third after the Nebraska game.