Despite bringing back 11 letter winners from last year’s roster, graduation forced the ISU volleyball team to say goodbye to two-time All-American Kristen Hahn. The Cyclones now find themselves looking to find a way to replace a departed star, a situation that is common among successful programs.

As a defensive specialist and libero, Hahn was a vocal leader and a defensive standout, which will be the two primary areas of the team that head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch and her staff will be tasked with revamping.

“I think we will be better overall as a team defensively so we won’t be relying on one person to just step into [Hahn’s] role and have as many digs as she had per game. I don’t think that’s even fair or realistic to put on someone,” Johnson-Lynch said. “But if we can be good at her position … and just better overall as a team, we can still match our team digs per game, which is what we hope to do.”

Johnson-Lynch said that the good news for Iowa State is that there are numerous talented options from which to choose Hahn’s primary replacement.

“There’s a lot of candidates. I think Caitlin Nolan has the most experience and she’s very talented and proven she can play the position very well,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Right now, I think Nolan … has the edge, but there is pretty stiff competition at that spot.”

Nolan, a junior, said the competition for Hahn’s position has been a motivator for her and the other defensive specialists during practices, pushing all of them closer to becoming consistent, a requirement at the libero position.

“[The competition] is all on the court. Nothing really goes past that, but it gets pretty intense,” Nolan said. “Everybody always comes in and works as hard as they can each day, and you kind of see it [spread] into the different positions. Everybody is like, ‘I want to match that,’ so that is awesome.”

As for replacing the leadership void left by Hahn’s departure, Johnson-Lynch was clear about that responsibility being split among seniors Victoria Hurtt and Taylor Goetz as well as junior Mackenzie Bigbee, 2013 All-American honorable mention selection.

Bigbee talked about the way pressure will affect her as she functions in a more pronounced leadership role while trying to live up to the individual accolades she attained last season.

“I honestly try not to think too much about the individual awards,” Bigbee said. “At the same time, being an upperclassman, the coaches look to you to lead. The younger players look to you to lead and so that does add a little bit of pressure.”

Nolan said one of the greater sources of pressure for her and for many of her teammates is to prove that the Cyclones will remain a force in 2014.

“We just lost two really good seniors and this year. We want to prove to everybody that we are still that good team,” Nolan said. “We might be young, but we still are going to be good.”

Iowa State opens its season Aug. 29 at Hilton Coliseum against Stanford.