She keeps going and going and going . . .

Like the little pink bunny for Energizer batteries commercials she was nicknamed after in high school, junior Cyclone setter Jen Lansink plays with the same never ending energy for Iowa State.

Lansink, now the regular starting setter for the Cyclone netters after some beginning of the year lineup switches, displayed her energy-filled talents last Saturday night against the Oklahoma Sooners.

Lansink tallied a record 72 assists in the four game match to post a new record for ISU. Those numbers put her at fourth on the all-time assist honor roll in Cyclone volleyball history with 1,054. This year Lansink has racked up 240 assists.

Lansink’s latest performance has earned her this week’s honors as the Daily’s Cyclone Profile athlete of the week.

Lansink is no newcomer to the setter’s position. She started directing team offenses in eighth grade and her love for her game of volleyball transpired into a starting role setting a Division I squad her freshman year.

Now in her junior year, Lansink is pushing her teammates to a possible NCAA bid and second place finish in the conference.

“I’ve been a setter since eighth grade and it is a higher pressure job. I’m involved in every single play that we have, but it’s just something that I’ve kind of accepted and I enjoy the role,” Lansink said.

Head Coach Jackie Nunez thinks that Lansink has steadily improved throughout her time at ISU and that her talent really showed in her record-setting match against Oklahoma.

“Lately I think Jan Lansink has been playing real well. I think she came out and ran one of the best offenses I’ve seen from her against Oklahoma,” Nunez said.

“She’s been setting very accurately and has been making some very good choices in terms of her selection in creating a lot more for the hitters to be able to put the ball away.”

Nunez said she thinks Jen is a good leader in the setting position, but would like to see the junior build on her attributes and improve her abilities.

“Jen is very aggressive, very vocal, and she’s very demanding of both herself and her teammates. She’s always been that way. She was that way when she was a freshman.

“I think that the team has learned to respond well to that. I think that as she continues to improve and get better, she’ll be able to establish herself even more in terms of some of those leadership skills,” Nunez said.

Lansink has already established herself in the classroom as a psychology major with a biology minor. She is an honor roll student at ISU and was named to the 1994 Big Eight academic honor roll.

Both Lansink and Nunez are hopeful for the rest of the season and are confident in each other’s abilities to dance in December.

“We’re really growing as a team. We’re executing now and we’re starting to become more consistent,” Lansink said. “I think we’re straight on the road to the national tournament. I think we’re going to take some names and show them what Iowa State volleyball is all about.”