Redshirt freshman Hannah Willms and sophomore Hannah Johnson will not return to the Iowa State volleyball team in 2012, ISU volleyball coach Christy Johnson-Lynch announced on Wednesday.

Willms, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, will focus her athletics full-time on the ISU women’s track and field team while Johnson, an Ankeny, Iowa native, will take a medical hardship during the final two years of her eligibility for the Cyclones.

Willms said that she made the decision to leave the team over winter break and discussed it heavily with her family and came back to Ames to have a meeting with the coaches to let them know of her decision. She also said that while the decision was a difficult one to make, it was the right choice for her.

“I don’t think that I lost my love for the game [of volleyball], but my love for track grew more,” Willms said. “I think [track] is more of my passion and it wasn’t going to work to do both; there just weren’t enough hours in the week to do both so I just made the choice.”

Over winter break, Willms and Johnson-Lynch discussed what practice times might be for spring volleyball. Willms said Johnson-Lynch told her the schedule with volleyball and outdoor track would be a lot to handle.

“The volleyball program is really up and going right now so [Johnson-Lynch] expected me to be there for every practice which would interfere with outdoor track,” Willms said. “That made me think a lot about the decision. I’m definitely going to miss everybody [in the volleyball program] but [track] will be a better fit.”

Johnson-Lynch said that she was not necessarily surprised with Willms decision to leave the team because she knew that there was a possibility for the beginning of Willms’ career that it could happen due to the time commitments for each sport. Johnson-Lynch, agreeing with Willms, said that there are no hard feelings between the two.

“I love Hannah, and I will go to track meets and support her,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I loved to coach her because she is very giving and selfless. We are going to miss her a ton, and I wish we could work something out, but I don’t blame her at all. She has huge potential in track with maybe the Olympics in her future. I just love her and am sad to see her go.”

Willms was a redshirt freshman in volleyball planning on being at Iowa State for five years, and that has not changed. Willms redshirted outdoor track in the 2011 season and will redshirt the 2012 indoor season giving her three and a half years of eligibility left for the Cyclones.

Willms said that she has started training for the heptathlon because of the time she is now able to devote to track and field. She also said that she hopes to compete at the high jump at the Iowa State Classic and that the coaches are very pleased with how much time she is able to spend doing track workouts.

“They were really excited,” Willms said. “I can’t really get to my full potential … unless I’m completely devoted to one or the other. So I just don’t think that I would have reached the peak I could have at either sport, so now, just choosing track, I can see what I can accomplish and they’re pretty excited.”

The Cyclone volleyball team will also have to do without the play of Hannah Johnson, who was forced to quit for health reasons due to her struggles with an auto-immune disease that doctors diagnosed her with over winter break.

Johnson said she has been dealing with this issue for the last couple of years and has been really affected by it in just the last year.

“I didn’t make the decision to leave as much as my health made it for me,” Johnson said. “My doctors said that there is a great risk of obtaining a more life threatening disease if I continued to do all of the things that are required from Division I athletes.”

Johnson-Lynch said she knew the decision was not an easy one but that it was the necessary one with the given circumstances.

“It was a really hard decision for her,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It’s hard for an athlete to realize the possibility of not going to practice everyday, and it’s hard for her to imagine life without the sport. She talked to a lot of people; doctors and family and everyone around her felt the same.”

Johnson described the whole process as kind of a whirlwind.

“It was really hard, and I didn’t see it coming,” an emotional Johnson said. “When you find out that you have a life-long disorder, you want to get to a point where you can get it under control. It’s just hard to go with and not being able to play everyday is really hard.”

Johnson said everything has happened kind of fast for the team hearing about her departure as well as Willms, but they have been supportive every step of the way.

“The team has been very supportive of Hannah and my decisions,” Johnson said. “And they realized that I had to make this decision for my health and Hannah had to do what was right for her.”