For the 11th time in the past 12 seasons, the Iowa State volleyball team has been picked third or better in the Big 12 Preseason volleyball poll.

In the 2020 Big 12 Preseason Poll, Iowa State, led by All-Big 12 Preseason selections junior right side player Eleanor Holthaus and senior middle blocker Candelaria Herrera, finished with 47 points, which got it third out of the nine Big 12 teams.

The Cyclones were picked just ahead of the Oklahoma Sooners, who had 46 points.

The order of teams in the preseason poll is determined by head coaches ranking the other eight teams in the Big 12.

Iowa State was picked behind Texas, who was picked to finish first (62 points and six first-place votes) and Baylor, who was picked second (59 points and three first-place votes).

This is the 10th consecutive year Texas has been picked to finish first in the Big 12 preseason poll.

Kansas and Texas Christian University (TCU) are tied for fifth place in the poll as they both had 29 points.

Texas Tech was picked to finish seventh, but aren’t too far behind Kansas and TCU in terms of points, as it finished with 26 points in the poll.

Rounding out the final two spots in the poll are Kansas State, who had 17 points and West Virginia, who had nine points.

In Christy Johnson-Lynch’s 15 seasons at Iowa State, her team has done as well as or better than its Big 12 Preseason Poll selection. In 13 out of 15 seasons, Johnson-Lynch’s Iowa State teams have reached or outperformed their selection in the Big 12 Preseason Poll selection.

Last season, Iowa State was selected to finish fourth in the Big 12. It finished the 2019 season fourth out of nine in the Big 12 with an 8-8 conference record (17-12 overall).

Iowa State has not released its schedule for the 2020 season yet.