Every NCAA volleyball team starts the season with a common goal: to make a postseason run. Tonight, the ISU volleyball team takes the next step towards realizing that dream.

The RPI No. 15 Cyclones open NCAA tournament play by squaring off with the RPI No. 35 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at 4:30 p.m. at Huff Hall in Champaign, Ill., home of the University of Illinois.

Should the Cyclones advance, they will face the winner of ninth-overall-seed Illinois vs. Murray State at 7 p.m. on Saturday, also at Illinois’s home arena.

Iowa State is 2-0 on neutral courts this season, with both wins having come at the Diet Coke Classic in Minneapolis back in mid-September. Road test, however, have been a different story for the Cyclones, who are just 5-6 outside the friendly confines of Hilton Coliseum.

If the Cyclones win in the first two rounds this weekend, they would return to Hilton to host the Sweet 16 and possibly the Elite 8 rounds, should they advance that far in the tournament.

To read the full preview of tonight’s match between Iowa State’s and Western Kentucky, check out the sports section in today’s Daily.