Thanks to the stunning career profiles of former players such as Erin Boeve and Jen Malcom, Iowa State has featured a recent string of powerful middle blockers.

This has occurred despite the fact that the Cyclones have never had a coach with experience at the position during Christy Johnson-Lynch’s four-year tenure in Ames.

But they can’t say that anymore.

The hiring of assistant coach Trudy Vande Berg from Duke this offseason gives Iowa State a knowledgeable coach with a strong background in the middle blocker position.

Johnson-Lynch and Vande Berg’s relationship dates back several years, when they were assistants together at Wisconsin under current Nebraska coach John Cook.

“That was the one spot on our staff where we didn’t have anyone that played the position or was good at training it,” Johnson-Lynch said. “When I worked with her for two years, I was really impressed with the work she did, and she had a lot of good ideas how to train [middle blockers].”

So far, it appears as though her presence is already paying dividends to the ISU middles through only a couple of weeks of preseason practice.

“It’s really nice to have a middles coach, someone who has played and coached middles their whole life,” said senior middle blocker Diane Kieger. “We’re getting tons of tips, and you can already tell the middles are getting better.”

Vande Berg’s tenure with the Blue Devils spanned the last four seasons, the team making appearances in the NCAA Tournament each time, and she spent the two years prior to that coaching at Division II North Florida following her stint at Wisconsin.

Vande Berg and Johnson-Lynch stayed in contact throughout their coaching endeavors since their time in Madison, knowing there was always a chance for them to coach together again when the opportunity presented itself.

The Cyclones plan to use Vande Berg’s knowledge and outgoing personality on the recruiting trail as well, as she has also taken up the majority of the recruiting responsibilities for the program.

“She’s very social,” Johnson-Lynch said. “She just loves to talk and chat and loves recruiting and being on the road, which was another big reason we hired her. She has fit in very well so far, and I really trust her with recruiting.”

Vande Berg, a 1999 graduate of UW-Milwaukee, has walked into an ideal situation for a new coach. Even with the departure of the standout Malcom after last season, the cupboard of middles is hardly bare. She has inherited players with both experience and youth, giving her a broad spectrum of talent with which to work. It starts with the experienced Kieger, as well as sophomore Deb Stadick, who is coming off a standout performance in last season’s NCAA Tournament, and freshman Jamie Straube, the nation’s No. 22 ranked recruit last season.

“There is unbelievable potential on top of the really good training these players have had already,” Vande Berg said. “They want to learn, they’re very enthusiastic, great athletes, really tall and generally good kids that want to work their butt off. And that just makes it all the more exciting to come to practice every day.”