For any student-athlete, several factors go into deciding which collegiate program best suits their needs. They look for such things as an impressive coaching staff, a large fan base, solid tradition, and a positive outlook for the program. And four years ago, it was hard to sell the ISU volleyball program on any of these levels.

When coach Christy Johnson arrived in Ames in 2005, there was only one thing she could pitch to her potential recruits: promises.

“A lot of it was telling them, ‘Trust me. Believe me’,” Johnson said. “And that’s a little scary for a recruit because they don’t know if it’s going to come through.”

Prior to the Johnson era, the Cyclones were regularly in the bottom half of the conference standings and only had 10 winning seasons in 27 years. In their first nine seasons of competing in the Big 12, the Cyclones owned a combined conference record of 13-167 (.078).

But as risky as it seemed to come to a non-traditional school, players started to believe in what Johnson was doing.

“I saw an opportunity to be a part of something new that had a chance to be great,” said preseason all-conference setter Kaylee Manns, who committed during Johnson’s first year with the Cyclones. “There were choices for me to go to programs that already had great histories, but I liked the idea of having a fresh start. I really liked the coaches and trusted what they were doing.”

And the trust in the coaches paid off. The team started winning, the fans started coming, and interest in the program began to rise.

In three years Iowa State posted three winning records (16-15, 21-11, 19-14), made two NCAA tournament appearances, and ranked No. 20 in the nation in attendance last season. Just like that, Johnson turned nothing into something special, and high school players began to take notice.

“If you can tell a kid that you just made it to the Sweet 16, it will get their attention,” Johnson said. “But it also gets tougher, because at the same time we’re fighting other top 20 programs for the same kids.”

The recruiting class Johnson and her staff assembled this season was the first top 25 class ever to come to Iowa State, and included three of the top 150 ranked players in the nation.

Four of the five players in the class have already seen action on the court this season, two of which have played starting roles. Not one is an Iowa native, as the team instead drew some of the top talent from Nebraska, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Right side hitter Rachel Hockaday, who backed out on a commitment to Ohio after a coaching change, came to Iowa State, despite the fact that the program didn’t have any prior contact with her until after the decommitment.

“A lot of the old schools came back and talked to me after [the decommitment],” Hockaday said. “And when I decided to come here it was kind of like taking a leap of faith, because they hadn’t recruited me before. But they had great coaches, a great team and were building a championship program.”

Two of the players, Nebraskans Carly Jenson and Caitlin Mahoney, agreed to come in as walk-ons after stellar prep careers. Mahoney holds Nebraska state records for services aces in a match, a season and a career.

“To have Caitlin and Carly willing to walk on is huge for us,” Johnson said. “And they are both playing for us as freshman. Getting kids with this kind of talent to commit themselves to us as a walk-on because they just want to be a part of this program is pretty neat.”

Tonight the freshmen will get their first dose of the Hilton Coliseum crowd, when the team plays it’s first home match of the season against Northern Iowa.