The ISU women’s basketball team will be absent one of the team’s primary 3-point shooters next season.

Sophomore Amanda Bartz asked for and was given her release from the Iowa State women’s basketball team.

Bartz was a part-time starter on last season’s record-breaking team. She averaged 4.9 points and 19.6 minutes per game.

Bartz was third on the team with 40 3-point baskets, while shooting 33.6 percent from the 3-point line.

“I had a long talk with Coach Fennelly and we ended on good terms,” Bartz said. “I have so much respect for Fennelly; Ames just isn’t the right place for me.”

ISU coach Bill Fennelly said he was a little surprised by Bartz’s decision. “She basically needed a change.

“We were of course disappointed. Amanda was a very good person. She helped our team for two years,” he said.

Bartz said her somewhat volatile relationship with Fennelly played a part in her leaving “to a certain extent, but it wasn’t the main factor.”

“Amanda has decided to pursue other avenues and we wish her the best,” Fennelly said.

Bartz said she is planning to start her junior year in exercise sports science at a Division I school where she will have to sit out a year under NCAA rules, but will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Bartz, who attended high school in Cedar Rapids, said she has tentative plans to visit San Diego State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

More than likely, Bartz said she will also be visiting Central Florida University in Orlando and Butler University.

“I have it pretty much narrowed down,” Bartz said. “I want to decide by the beginning of June.”

Since the decision to leave is now official, Bartz said she “just cannot wait to visit all these places” as she begins the recruiting process all over again.

Bartz’s absence leaves just three returning perimeter players: Stacy Frese, Megan Taylor and Erica Haugen.

“I think I’ve always been someone who worries about the people that are here, not about the people that were here,” Fennelly said. “We were going to be a young team, now we just got a little younger. Hopefully those kids will be ready to step in and play.”