The Iowa State volleyball team earned a selection to the 2006 NCAA Tournament, playing its opening rounds in Madison, Wisc. At that moment, ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch didn’t imagine playing in the national tournament for 10 straight seasons.

Iowa State (18-10, 11-5 Big 12) will travel to Madison, Wisc., again this week to try and finish the job that the 2006 team didn’t accomplish. That job was to beat Wisconsin and move on to the Regionals round.

This time, they must go through the Miami Hurricanes (21-9, 14-6 ACC) in the first round.

“Every time you get selected to this tournament, it’s always an honor,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I’ve been so grateful to have great teams and players for the last 10 years to make it to this competitive tournament.”

The 2006 ISU team made it through the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but was swept by Wisconsin in the second round and failed to make it to the Regional round. 

The current ISU volleyball team hopes to go back the same location with a different result in mind. The Cyclones is favored by the RPI rankings against Miami, ranked 23rd while the Hurricanes are 38th.

Miami is an aggressive team and has three hitters that can be nightmares for opponents’ blockers, but Iowa State will continue their defensive mindset. The team will focus on blocking the hitters and digging any ball that comes into the backcourt. 

“We will play Iowa State volleyball,” said sophomore Monique Harris. “That’s what has brought us to this point, and we intend to continue this focus to go farther in the tournament.”

If the Cyclones defeat the Hurricanes on Thursday, they will play the winner of No. 4 Wisconsin and Oregon, which would potentially allow Iowa State to finish what the 2006 team started almost ten years ago. 

Johnson-Lynch said that the team isn’t looking ahead to the second round because they know that Miami will be a tough match. 

“We haven’t played Miami in a long time, so it’ll be fun to matchup against them again,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Hopefully, we can repeat what we did in 2011.”

In 2011, the last time these two teams met, Iowa State swept Miami in the second round to advance to Regionals. Along with the win in 2011, Johnson-Lynch has won 14 other matches in the NCAA Tournament, including five trips to the second weekend. 

Junior Ciara Capezio is excited to play in another NCAA Tournament and hopes the team can go far. She’s mostly looking forward to the environment with the fans and the higher level of play between two teams that deserve to be in the tournament. 

“We’ve been looking at the NCAA Tournament all season long, and now we’re here,” Capezio said. “Now, we need to perform at our highest level to accomplish our expectations of going far.”