The Iowa State volleyball team will return to the hardwood for the first time in 2017 on Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa, since an opening-round loss to Purdue in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

While spring games don’t count for anything, they provide an opportunity for teams to grow and coaches to tinker with their lineups. Head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch returns a roster that is loaded with talent. Middle blocker Alexis Conaway and libero Hali Hillegas are poised lead the way for the Cyclones.

But how will they be used? Johnson-Lynch said she is certainly keeping her options open.

“Everything is on the board right now,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Everything is a possibility.”

Last year, Johnson-Lynch made the decision to switch from a 5-1 system to a 6-2 system — a decision that completely flipped around the Cyclones’ season. After the switch, Iowa State looked like a completely different team.

The Cyclones ended the season winning 10 of their last 12 games, including an 8-1 record in their last nine games, to clinch their spot in the postseason.

Johnson-Lynch doesn’t know what system they will play this season, and said she will experiment with both the 5-1 and the 6-2 this spring.

“We won’t probably know until the fall,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We’re going to do both this spring. We’ll play a 6-2 with both setters and a 5-1 with both setters and we’ll see where things fall. I think we are pretty open right now just to see what sort of system we want to be in and looking at all possibilities.”

In practice Tuesday, Conaway was playing in the back row, a spot she typically does not play. Conaway has played middle blocker for most of her career as a Cyclone, a position in the front row.

“I’m definitely working on it,” Conaway said. “I played in high school and haven’t much in college. I definitely have aways to go, but it’s been fun.”

Hillegas had a breakout season at libero during the 2016 season. She recorded 413 digs last year, enough to earn a spot on the Big 12 All-Freshman team.

She returns to the court this spring in hopes of carrying on a strong tradition of excellent libero play at Iowa State.

“She’s pretty solid back there,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Very consistent, lots of confidence. I just feel like she’s ready to step it up even another level.”

The Cyclones will look to improve on two main areas this spring. The first is improving out of system, meaning when someone besides the setter sets the ball. The second area is blocking.

“I think a big strength for us is our defense,” Conaway said. “Just really work on our blocking because if we can get that along with defense then it will be pretty hard for teams to score on us.”

Iowa State is scheduled to play five games Saturday at the UNI Spring Tournament in Cedar Falls. The Cyclones will go up against Western Illinois, UNI, Drake, Northern Illinois and Iowa.

While the tournament won’t have any ramifications for the regular season, Conaway knows these games are still important.

“It will be a good test of where we’re at,” Conaway said. “I think it will be fun. We’ve been practicing a lot so anytime we can go and play is good.”