It’s not easy to replace two All-Americans, but the Cyclones’ young talent is making the transition to Big 12 volleyball rather smoothly.

Freshman outside hitter Victoria Hurtt joins setter and defensive specialist Taylor Goetz as well as middle-back Tory Knuth. Those three make up the No. 25 recruiting class to start the season.

Outside hitter Hannah Willms also will be playing her first official season after redshirting during her first season in Ames.

Knuth comes in as the 2010 Des Moines Register Player of the Year. The Johnston native was named to the All-State team every season during high school. She didn’t play in the team’s opening weekend, but coach Christy Johnson-Lynch knows she is going to be effective in the future.

“We’re still evaluating her and seeing what we want to do with her this year,” Johnson-Lynch said. “She’s going to be really, really good.”

The speed of the game from high school to college has been the toughest thing for the Knuth to adjust to.

“It’s a lot faster than high school,” Knuth said. “Just learning to adjust to how quick the game goes has been hard for me.”

Hurtt, a Kansas City, Mo., native, led Archbishop O’Hara to four straight state championships before being named a 2010 prepvolleyball.com All-American. She’s made an impact at Iowa State right from the beginning. Through the first three games, Hurtt finished with 35 kills, including a 17-kill performance against Northern Illinois.

She had nine kills in the victory against Northern Illinois in the season opener, which is the most kills for a freshman in her collegiate debut since teammate Rachel Hockaday recorded 11 in her debut in September 2008.

Goetz, from Ankeny, boasts a pair of state titles of her own in 2008 and 2009. She was able to find playing time in the Cyclones season opener against Northern Illinois.

“Right now, she’s our backup setter and is playing [defensive specialist] as well,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I think she can contribute. She didn’t get many opportunities, but when she had them she did a really nice job with that.”

Willms took a redshirt for her freshman season, but also was highly recruited coming out of high school.

The redshirt freshman from Waterloo was the No. 37 overall ranked prospect coming out of Dike-New Hartford and was also named the Des Moines Register’s Female Athlete of the Year in 2009.

Through the first three games, Willms totaled nine kills with a hitting percentage of .160.

With plenty of talent and experience around her, Knuth has been able to pick up the system quickly and smoothly.

“The freshmen, as well as any of the upperclassmen, have been a big help to look up to,” Knuth said. “Everyone has been a good role model and a big help at practice.”

The heights of the players is something Goetz is going to have to adjust to as the season goes along.

The average height of a collegiate defensive specialist is 6 feet 2 inches, which leads to different kinds of sets.

“I have to get used to the different types of sets for different players because the players are a lot taller now,” Goetz said. “The main thing they’ve been telling me is to have high hands and shoot it high but fast, so the hitters can get on it.”