1,266.8 miles.

That’s how far Iowa State will travel to Missoula, Montana, to face the likes of Gonzaga, Montana and Utah in the Montana Invitational.

The invitational is a four-team, round-robin tournament running from Friday until Saturday.

Iowa State will look to knock off Utah, its second ranked team of the week, after Iowa State was able to beat No. 17 Northern Iowa on Wednesday. In three sets, the Cyclones sweep the Panthers on the road in front of a sell-out crowd.

“I thought last weekend [at the Cyclone Challenge] was a little disappointing in that I never thought we looked like a team,” coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. “I thought ‘we’re so athletic’, you could line us up: ‘Wow. She could be an All-Big 12 player, she could be an All-Big 12 player, she could be an All-American,’ but we didn’t look like a team.”

Johnson-Lynch said that she finally saw her team compete as a team and develop chemistry against Northern Iowa in a tough atmosphere.

Utah checks in at No. 22 with a 2-1 record after beating UC Irvine 3-0, losing to Saint Mary’s (California) 3-2 and beat Denver 3-2.

At this time, Iowa State is on the outside looking in of the AVCA Top 25. Iowa State was ranked No. 21 in the top 25 preseason poll, but lost to Oregon State at home on Aug. 25 and are now in receiving votes.

Iowa State will face the Utes in the Cyclones’ last game of the invitational on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Prior to that game, Iowa State will first face Gonzaga on Friday at 1 p.m. On the same day, Iowa State will square off with Montana at 8 p.m.

Currently, Gonzaga is sitting at a 0-2 record after losing two bouts to No. 11 UCLA. The Bulldogs lost both games to UCLA 3-1.

In the 8 p.m. game, Iowa State will be facing a Montana team that is currently winless after losses to UC-Riverside, Cal State Fullerton and Akron.

Iowa State will look to even up the all-time series versus Montana, with the current record sitting at 3-2 in favor of the Grizzlies.

The last time these two teams met, Iowa State won 3-0 and seniors Hannah Bailey and Grace Lazard lead the Cyclones with eight kills apiece.

Lazard has been on a tear this season, and in her last game against Northern Iowa she had eight kills, an ace and five block assists.

Johnson-Lynch said that she credits Lazard’s uptick in play on how well she has been varying where she attacks the court.

In Iowa State’s last three games, the Cyclones have been averaging 12.75 assists, 15.5 digs and 3.25 blocks a set. Also, they have been averaging 13.67 kills per set and a .259 hitting percentage.

Johnson-Lynch said that she wants to replicate the blocking prowess of last year’s team which averaged around three blocks a set. Earlier in the season, Johnson-Lynch said that Iowa State wasn’t performing up to her expectations.

In Iowa State’s first game, the team had four blocks in the entirety of the contest.

If Iowa State is able to run the table at the Montana Invitational, two wins against top 25 teams could propel Iowa State back into the polls.