MINNEAPOLIS – The No. 23 Iowa State Cyclones were swept against the No. 17 Minnesota Golden Gophers in the second round of the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament Saturday night at the Maturi Pavilion.
With the loss, the Cyclones end the season 23-8 on the season and have a 12-6 record in conference play. Head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch still hasn’t reached a regional semifinal since 2012, but this weekend marked her fifth appearance in the second round since then.
While combating previous-day fatigue after yesterday’s five-set match, Iowa State never established a lead in the first set. The Cyclones deepened the hole they were in with three attack errors and three service errors. The only moment when it was tied was when it was 1-1.
“It’s rough,” redshirt senior middle blocker Amiree Hendricks-Walker said. “The team we played yesterday, they genuinely gave their all. It was a great game, but it’s tough to play such an intense game the night before and then come back and play to our full capacity.”
Minnesota overwhelmed the Cyclones in the first set with its offensive attack. The Gophers finished set one with a .425 hitting percentage, 18 kills and only one attack error. The Cyclones had two attack errors in the first set, none of which were from their first-set top four kill leaders.
The Cyclones showed glimpses of hope in the second set as the score remained close until it was tied 8-8. From there, the Gophers used a 5-0 run to jump to a 13-8 lead.
Two of those points came from attack errors by freshman outside hitter Alea Goolsby. Three out of four of Goolsby’s attack errors came in the second set.
The Cyclones flipped the script with a 10-3 run of their own to make the score 18-16. The Gophers, however, ended the set with a 6-1 run to win 25-21.
The third set was similar to set one, with the ending of set two. The Cyclones never tied or led in the third set and the Gophers ended the match with a 6-0 scoring run, won the set 25-14 and secured their spot in the regional semifinals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Cyclones unable to stop Hanson
On the opposite side of the net, Minnesota’s senior outside hitter Julia Hanson had 11 of the team’s 18 kills in the first set, 9 of 16 in the second and 3 out of 13 in the third. Hanson ended the night with 23 of the team’s 47 kills.
“She can elevate like no other,” Hendricks-Walker said. “That girl gets up. She probably touches 10-8. She elevated so well. Some of those balls she was just hitting over us, and you really can’t do anything about that.”
Hanson’s hitting percentage was .550 after the first set, .543 after the second and ended the night with a .488 after the third. Saturday marked Hanson’s ninth match this year above .400.
“Credit to Stella [Swenson] and our passers,” Hanson said. “She gives me great situations. We almost hit that as a team, so it’s a team effort.”
The Gophers hit with a .384 hitting percentage in the match, which was set up by 35 assists from redshirt freshman setter Stella Swenson.
“A big thing for me was that losing people early on meant that lineups changed constantly,” Swenson said. “That meant learning what my hitters liked and didn’t like right away.”
For Swenson, there was no time to procrastinate when figuring out how to help new hitters this season. Despite the amount of time, the offensive connection has been mastered on the court.
“I had to figure out what they needed and what they didn’t want,” Swenson said. “The fact that I found those connections and that I can set Julia [Hanson] blindfolded is huge for our team.”
With the season-ending loss, the Cyclones will now have to wait until next fall to try to make it to their first regional semifinal in 15 years. With five seniors graduating, Johnson-Lynch will have many areas to fill in order to exceed this year’s success.
