Iowa State women’s volleyball is led by coach Christy Johnson-Lynch — who will be entering her 16th season as the team’s head coach. Johnson-Lynch has accumulated an overall record of 289-151 at Iowa State and has made the NCAA tournament on 14 occasions.

Last season, the Cyclones failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, Johnson-Lynch’s first season as coach.

The Cyclones were spearheaded by seniors Jess Schaben, Hali Hillegas and Grace Lazard, but a slew of injuries held the team back and the team finished with a record of 21-13. Schaben, an outside hitter, and Hillegas, a libero, both were honored as AVCA All-Americans during their time at Iowa State.

For the upcoming 2019-2020 season, the Cyclones have the task of replacing those three graduates.

The change for libero started last season when Izzy Enna stepped into the starting libero spot, which unseated the former Big 12 Libero of the Year, Hillegas.

“I am so thankful for the opportunity [to play libero],” Enna said. “I’ve worked so hard, I’ve wanted this for so long and just being able to have the opportunity to do it just has been amazing and I just feel like I can contribute energy and I feel that has really helped through the matches.”

Johnson-Lynch said after making the change she wanted to continue to evaluate the position, but Enna separated herself from Hillegas and started the last 17 games of the season.

Enna led the Cyclones in service aces with 31 and set a career high in digs with 19. She reached that mark four times. After one of her 19 dig performances against Texas Tech, Enna was awarded Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week.

While Enna is slotted to be the team’s starting libero for the foreseeable future, the team has to work to replace Schaben and Lazard on the attack.

Those two graduates accounted for 46.6 percent of Iowa State’s kills last season. Schaben contributed 516 kills off of 1445 attack attempts for a hitting percentage of .250 and Lazard contributed 295 kills of off 618 attack attempts for a hitting percentage of .341.

“We lost our two big hitters — that was a big part of our offense,” assistant coach Fiona Fonoti said.

The team will also have Brooke Andersen, Meegan Hart and Avery Rhodes inserted back into the lineup after all three were sidelined last season due to injury or medical concerns.

Fonoti said the Cyclones will be fielding a practically “new” team this fall due to the addition of Andersen, Hart and Rhodes and the youth of the team. The only senior on the team’s roster is outside hitter Josie Herbst.

With two volume hitters gone — Fonoti said the team needs to learn to play together and players need to find their roles.

On the attack this upcoming season, keep an eye on Herbst, Andersen and Eleanor Holthaus to take on the void left by Schaben and Lazard.