Two weeks ago, ISU volleyball coach Christy Johnson-Lynch noted that the health of her middle blockers might continue to be somewhat of a problem during the teams’ mid-season conference grind.

But recent matches have proved her initial thoughts to be anything but prophetic.

Instead, it appears as if she placed a reverse jinx on middle blocker Jamie Straube, who has been nearly unstoppable since then.

In her last four matches, Straube has recorded a blistering .467 hitting percentage and has been a part of nearly half of all the blocks the Cyclones have registered in that span.

“She has really improved a lot,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We’ve been asking more of her, especially offensively, and we’ve been working a lot on getting her the ball more. Part of it is confidence, and I think we’re in a better rhythm offensively, which helps tremendously.”

The No. 12 Cyclones (15-4, 8-3 Big 12) will face the team that Straube started her hot streak against when they head south to face Kansas State on Wednesday night.

Holding Kansas State to a dismal .085 hitting percentage highlighted Iowa State’s sweep of the Wildcats (9-13, 3-8) on Oct. 13, when the Cyclones also notched a Big 12 season-high of 11 blocks.

Outside hitter JuliAnne Chisholm, Kansas State’s leading offensive weapon, was held to an embarrassing -.227 hitting percentage with 0 kills on 22 attempts in the match.

“We’ll be doing a lot of similar things to try to shut down their outsides while still limiting the middle,” Straube said. “But a lot of it will be just working on our game, because our transition and blocking is going to be big.”

Saturday’s sweep of the Kansas Jayhawks was as close to the solid all-around performance that has been hard to come by so far this season for the Cyclones.

While still searching for that elusive complete match, Johnson-Lynch saw many improvements over the last week.

“I was pretty pleased with how we played against Kansas,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I felt like we hadn’t been playing that well lately and that was the first time in a few weeks where I saw a lot of progress. We were in a lot better rhythm and I was really excited about that.”

Wednesday night’s match against the Wildcats is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start at the Ahearn Field House in Manhattan, Kan.

Mass earns second Big 12 honor of the season

For the 14th time in her illustrious career, libero Ashley Mass was named the Defensive Player of the Week by the Big 12 Conference.

The senior registered 36 digs in two matches against Colorado and Kansas last week for an average of 5.14 per set.

On Oct. 16 Mass, became the Big 12 leader for career digs, passing former Kansas State libero Angie Lastra’s previous record of 2,032.

Mass has earned more weekly Big 12 awards than any other athlete in ISU history. Second to Mass is former men’s basketball player Marcus Fizer with 10.

Johnson-Lynch given Iowa State impact award

As a testament to the success she’s had with the volleyball program, Johnson-Lynch was selected as one of two recipients for this years’ Impact Award, given out annually by the Iowa State Alumni Association.

The distinction has been a part of the ISU Homecoming celebration since 2000, and is given to individuals, businesses, organizations and units whose programs have brought broad recognition to the university in the past year.

In 2005 Johnson-Lynch took over a team that was just 13-167 in Big 12 play in the nine seasons prior to her arrival.

Since then, she has led the Cyclones to a winning record in each of her five seasons and finished last year ranked sixth in the nation, the highest ranking ever for the program.

She was also named Coach of the Year by the Big 12 Conference and Asics/Volleyball Magazine after the 2009 season.