The Iowa State volleyball team starts its season with a pair of matches at the UNLV Invite in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday against Pacific and Saturday against UNLV.
The Cyclones are coming off a strong 20-10 season, where they went 11-7 in Big 12 play, finishing fourth in the conference for the second straight season. The season ended in the first round of the NCAA tournament with a 3-1 loss to Hawaii.
Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch expects a lot of the same success this year, with some key returners prepared for big seasons. Those returners include junior setter Morgan Brandt, junior outside hitter Maya Duckworth, senior libero Brooke Stonestreet and sophomore outside hitter Nayeli Gonzalez, among others.
Gonzalez had an impactful freshman season that earned her the Big 12 Rookie of the Year award and three different American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) honors. Brandt had a very successful year as the setter for the Cyclones, totaling 1132 assists and averaging 10.2 assists per set. Stonestreet is primed to cap off a great career at Iowa State as the libero and finished the 2023 season with 440 digs and 99 assists.
Coach Johnson-Lynch spoke about some of the experienced players who will continue to shine for the Cyclones and be leaders for this team.
“You know, it’s nice to have a returning setter who had a year of experience running the five-one. She’s playing better than ever,” Johnson-Lynch said about Brandt. “[Gonzalez] had a great freshman year, and she looks good.”
Johnson-Lynch also emphasized the team’s depth and versatility, noting that reliance will not lie on a single player.
“It will depend a little bit on the night for us for who people notice,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We have some nice depth, we have some nice attackers. It’s not going to be like a one-trick pony team.”
Even with the depth, the Cyclones worked on the basics during double days. One area of focus for Iowa State was defense and trying to come together to limit the opponent’s success around the net. The Cyclones held opponents to a .208 hitting percentage a year ago, but they still believe they can improve.
“A lot of block work, a lot of ball handling work, handling the easy stuff right to the setter, just being organized with the team defense,” Johnson-Lynch said. “I’m excited to see that show up, meaning, can we hold opponents to a lower hitting percentage than we did last year.”
Having depth will be crucial, especially in a revamped Big 12 that features four new teams. However, Texas and Oklahoma are both joining the SEC, which means there will be a guaranteed new Big 12 champion with the Longhorns gone.
Among the Big 12 newcomers, Arizona State was the most successful in the 2023 season. The Sun Devils had a 28-7 record and lost to No. 1 seed Stanford in the regional semifinal. Johnson-Lynch listed Arizona State as one of the teams she is looking forward to playing.
“It’ll be fun to play the new Big 12 teams,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Arizona State had a really nice season last year, so I’ll be really interested to see them this year. Kansas came out ranked number one [in the Big 12], that’s going to be a great match.”
Although the conference has changed a lot, not much has changed when it comes to coaching for Iowa State. Johnson-Lynch is heading into her 20th season at the helm, cementing herself further as one of the top Big 12 volleyball coaches ever.
Johnson-Lynch is fourth all-time in Big 12 wins with 203 wins and took over a program that went 13-167 under previous leadership from 1996-2004. In her 19 seasons, she has had one season that finished with a record below .500, which came in the shortened Covid season, and has never finished below sixth place in the Big 12.
“I’m excited to have this group and still enjoy it as much as I do in that 20th year,” Johnson-Lynch said. “It can be hard to, you know, be in this industry for that long and in one place that’s, I think, unusual.”
Johnson-Lynch has made it to the NCAA tournament 16 times and hopes to make it 17 this season. To start the season, the team will head west to Las Vegas, but the main focus is volleyball – seeing the city is second.
“It’s a pretty busy weekend, so we plan to see the sites a little bit, probably after the match Saturday – with supervision,” Johnson-Lynch said.
The Cyclones will open the season with a match against Pacific at 5 p.m. Friday. Iowa State will then take on UNLV at 6 p.m. Saturday. The matches will not be televised.
