In recent years, parts of the Cyclone fan nation have started to come down with volleyball fever, as showcased by the team’s improving attendance figures and 14th national ranking last season. Despite this increased following of the volleyball program, the fire had yet to spread to the student body.

That was, until Friday night.

In Iowa State’s season opener against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, hundreds of students blanketed the first five rows on the south side of Hilton Coliseum, in what was likely the largest group of students to ever attend a Cyclone volleyball match.

Thanks to the newly formed Cy’d Out Crew, the brainchild of head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch’s program and staff, the volleyball team now has its own version of Cyclone Alley sitting courtside at matches.

“It’s something completely different,” said senior setter Kaylee Manns. “We’ve never had that many students at a match before, especially in a coordinated student section. It just shows how people are becoming aware of how much better we’ve gotten.”

By the end of the weekend, more than 400 students had signed up for the Cy’d Out Crew, to go along with more than 500 season tickets already sold, easily eclipsing last year’s season ticket mark of 116.

While student sections have become commonplace at collegiate sporting events such as basketball and football, the majority of college volleyball teams across the nation haven’t seen the same student participation. The staff knows this added fan base can give the program a distinct advantage at home matches that most programs don’t have the luxury of experiencing.

“It was so neat to see a group of students supporting us, because a lot of programs don’t have student sections,” Johnson-Lynch said. “That’s always been a struggle for a lot of programs. And to see them all wearing the same shirt and sitting on the sideline heckling the other team, it’s pretty cool for our program.”

Manns sets career

assist mark

With her 24th assist of the afternoon on Saturday, setter Kaylee Manns set the ISU school record for set assists in a career, surpassing the 4,406 tallied by Lisa Burke between 1987 and 1990. Manns entered the season needing just 64 to raise the bar, thanks to her three previous record-breaking seasons. After her junior year, Manns already held the top three spots on the school’s single-season set assist list.

Straube contributes in debut

Jamie Straube, the most highly touted recruit from Iowa State’s No. 10 nationally-ranked recruiting class, immediately had the chance to make an impact in her first match as a Cyclone, receiving the starting nod in the season opener. Straube, the nation’s No. 22 high school recruit last season, started both matches over the weekend and tallied 14 kills and five blocks as middle blocker.

The native of Tecumseh, Neb. has been assigned the duty of replacing Jen Malcom, the only starter from last year’s team who did not return for 2009.

“For a freshman, she had a really good start,” Johnson-Lynch said. “She’s a great athlete and a very physical kid. She’s got a lot of confidence, and I think she’s ready to go, but we just need to clean up our offense a little bit and get her to score a little bit more.”