Taylor Goetz, a setter and defensive specialist, is one of two seniors on the ISU volleyball team. But through the first eight matches she has found herself in an unfamiliar position.

“My role has changed a lot,” Goetz said. “My first two years here, I did not see the court too much. Last year I started seeing it a little more. This year I am getting a lot of court time, so it has been a transition.”

Despite the hardships of her three-year grind, which was riddled with painstaking work and a good deal of time spent on the bench, Goetz said the path she ultimately traveled at Iowa State shaped her as a person.

“It was tough, but I would not take it back,” Goetz said. “I learned so many lessons and I think it made me a better person to fight through that and figure out how to get on the court. I am thankful for it.”

Neither the work Goetz put in nor the personality and leadership it helped to foster within her went unnoticed.

“Her personality [is] the reason she is out there,” said ISU head volleyball coach Christy Johnson-Lynch. “She is doing well technically and statistically, but she is also such a great competitor and she adds a lot … just with her personality.”

Goetz also knows the ropes at Iowa State better than almost anyone, and Johnson-Lynch said her gift for communication as well as her willingness to engage in it has helped a team littered with young talent acclimate to the ISU culture.

Junior libero Caitlin Nolan is in the middle of her third year as a teammate with Goetz and stepped into a prominent role at the same time, which she said has fostered solidarity among the two.

“We have both been there for each other since spring through the ups and downs and I think we are each other’s biggest fans,” Nolan said. “Within this last year we have gotten really close. She is supportive and I feel like we push each other to be better.”

Nolan described Goetz as an emotional leader both in practice and during the matches. She echoed Johnson-Lynch’s comments that Goetz’s stability and competitiveness are where Goetz’s value shines the brightest.

However, no matter how much leadership, support, competitiveness and communication an athlete can offer, she still needs to perform on the court. Goetz described her technical role as simply to “serve tough, pass balls and play some good defense.”

Eight matches into the 2014 season, it is a role she is fulfilling.

“She has really jumped in her passing numbers,” Johnson-Lynch said. “She is serving very tough, she is running points in her rotations when she serves and she is playing great defense. She has worked so hard for so long to finally get her break — [it] is cool to see.”

The legacy Goetz said she wants to leave with the ISU volleyball program when she graduates in 2015 is one of attitude and effort, which she hopes will be perpetuated by the young talent on the ISU roster.

Her legacy is not the only thing Goetz is concerned about leaving behind, however. She said when she does go, it will be a bittersweet moment.

“I will miss how it is like a family here,” Goetz said. “The coaching staff and my teammates, we work so well together and have such a good culture. That is an experience I think a lot of people do not have and I think this program is very good at forming that.”

Goetz added that before she departs, there are a few matters of unfinished business she hopes Iowa State can attend to — namely a Big 12 championship and a national championship.

“I dream big,” Goetz said.