Replacing Angie Welle, Iowa State’s all-time leading scorer, shot blocker and rebounder, would be a lot of pressure for anyone — anyone except for the person who is doing it. That person is Cyclone forward/center Lisa Kriener.

Senior guard Lindsey Wilson sees some similarities between the two, but she feels they are two very different types of players.

“Lisa is a tremendous athlete, and she’s got tremendous basketball skills. Her whole thing is just believing in herself. With Angie, you didn’t really have to worry about that. She came in with a tremendous amount of confidence,” Wilson said. “After playing four years in the Big 12, she pretty much knew what was going on.”

Kriener, a sophomore from St. Ansgar, has become Iowa State’s feature post player since the departure of All-American center Welle. Kriener is quickly developing into another weapon in an offense that includes the outside guns of Wilson and Anne O’Neil.

Kriener displayed her effectiveness Wednesday night when she scored 14 points in helping Iowa State upset No. 3 Kansas State.

ISU head coach Bill Fennelly loved what he and his staff saw when recruiting Kriener and has already seen much improvement out of her in her young career.

“I liked her enthusiasm for the game. She’s athletic, and we thought that her best basketball was ahead of her,” he said. “In 27 years of coaching I’ve never seen a kid go from where she was her freshman year to where she was at the beginning of her sophomore year, and that’s a credit to her.”

Wilson has also been impressed with the improvement she has seen in Kriener thus far.

“She has improved as much as anybody that I’ve ever seen. She worked really hard on just getting her confidence up and believing in herself,” Wilson said. “She realized that was the only thing that was limiting her last year.”

Kriener attributes her improvement and growth in confidence to the fact that she knew the team would need her even more going into this season, with the graduation of top players like Welle and Tracy Gahan, as well as the absence created when Melanie Bremer quit the team.

“It motivated me this summer to keep working harder because I didn’t want to let the team, the coaches or the fans down. I didn’t want to let anyone down,” she said. “Everybody knows that Angie Welle is awesome and she’s irreplaceable. I don’t really think about it.”

Kriener did take advantage of playing with Welle, studying her game to see how to improve her own game.

“She set a really good example as far as different moves, and how she handled different situations and running the floor,” she said. “She was just a real positive role model.”

Her athleticism was another attraction Fennelly had towards Kriener.

“She’s the kind of young person who can make that development and make that jump, as an athlete and as a human being,” he said. “It’s paying dividends for her and it’s definitely paying off for this team.”

Although she is just starting to come into her own for Iowa State, Kriener is used to being a big part of a successful team. While at St. Ansgar High School, Kriener went 92-13 as a four-year starter, winning four conference, district and regional titles. Her team appeared in the state tournament all four years, finishing as the Class 2A runner-up her senior season.

Kriener will look to build on her performance against Kansas State when the Cyclones go to Waco, Texas, to face Baylor on Saturday afternoon. Fennelly expects to try and get her involved in the offense more and more as Kriener improves.

“We made a commitment where we just got to get the ball into her more. We got to throw it in there,” he said. “She has to play against very good players, and a lot of them are older and more experienced. I think Lisa looks forward to those opportunities.”