AMES – Iowa State dropped its final game of the 2024 season to No. 11 Kansas on Friday night. [25-23, 23-25, 21-25, 26-28].
Senior Brooke Stonestreet, redshirt junior Lilly Wachholz and junior Morgan Brandt all contributed to all facets of the game.
With this loss, Iowa State finished the year with a 10-18 record and a 4-13 record in Big 12 play. It is the worst season record in head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch’s tenure.
“It definitely was a season of adversity,” Johnson-Lynch said. “Given all we faced, I was really proud of how they continued to battle. We battled a lot. Even when NCAA tournament hopes were out of reach, we continued to fight, so I’m proud of their resilience and looking forward to next year.”
Lone senior Stonestreet
Senior night had quite a different ring tonight as Stonestreet was the only senior on the roster.
Stonestreet ranks eighth all-time in digs with 1,427 and ranks seventh in digs per set with 3.88. She also has four Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week awards.
“[Stonestreet] represents what you are hoping to have for a player in their career,” Johnson-Lynch said. “That is someone that comes in and improves every year and plays their best ball senior year. She’s what a Cyclone volleyball player is.”
Stonestreet has been the full-time libero since Iowa State faced injuries to its outside hitters throughout the season. Stonestreet had 447 digs on the year at 3.85 per set and tallied one of her four Big 12 awards.
Digs keep Iowa State competitive
Iowa State is known for its ‘Iowa State Defense’ and it showed Friday night.
Iowa State saw four players with double-digit kills including Stonestreet, Brandt, freshman Rachel Van Gorp and freshman Emily Bobbitt.
“We pride ourselves on being gritty defenders and we have a good group of them back there,” Johnson-Lynch said.
Kansas block line was too much
Iowa State has been undersized at the net for most of the season due to injuries, and it came back to bite them tonight. Kansas had two players with five-plus blocks and ended the night with 14 compared to Iowa State with six.
Kansas’ London Davis finished the night with 21 kills in 42 attempts and had five blocks. Kansas’ Reece Ptacek had a team-high seven blocks and added seven kills to her name.
Looking forward to next year, Iowa State will be returning a lot of players who played this year, and star outside hitter Nayeli Gonzalez should be on her way back.
“Getting healthy is really important. We have some players that really need to get healthy,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We’re adding in some nice freshman players too so there is a lot to look forward to.”
