The Iowa State Volleyball team continued its winning ways in its 2016 campaign, coach Christy Johnson-Lynch’s 12th season leading the Cyclones.

But it wasn’t all easy going for the Cyclones.

At the beginning of the season, Iowa State found itself just 1-4 in the Big 12 and unsure if it would even make the tournament.

Something needed to change.

Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch elected to make the switch to the 6-2 system, and the Cyclones looked like a completely different team.

The drawback to the 6-2 is that the setter is always in the back row, so they have to dig twice as many balls as they normally would. And when the setter digs the ball, the team is out of system, so someone else has to step up and set the ball.

Iowa State swept South Dakota and Texas Tech, beginning an impressive run to the postseason.

The Cyclones ended the season winning 10 of their last 12 games, including an 8-1 record in their last nine games, to clinch their spot in the post season.

“[The turnaround] has really been remarkable,” Johnson-Lynch said. “The win over Kansas State was key, then the win over TCU and then of course Texas. All of those were pretty critical.”

Johnson-Lynch then explained what was different about the game against Texas.

“It felt like we really found something down at Texas, but it still took us a couple of weeks to think, ‘If we keep winning, we really do have a shot to get ourselves back in the tournament and make a good run,” Johnson-Lynch said.

Iowa State qualified for its 11th straight NCAA tournament, all under Johnson-Lynch. The Cyclones were unable to make a run in the tournament, falling to Purdue in the first round.

Iowa State ended the 2016 season with an 18-11 overall record and a 10-6 conference record. Johnson-Lynch has posted a winning record in each of her 12 seasons with the Cyclones.

The Cyclones will be poised to make another return to the post season in 2017.

Senior middle blocker Alexis Conaway returns for Iowa State as well as redshirt sophomore libero Hali Hillegas, who was instrumental in the change to the 6-2 system.

Conaway started in 28 matches for Iowa State in 2016 and was second on the team with 69 total blocks (10 solo, 59 assists).

Hillegas was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman team and one of three Cyclones to play in all 29 matches. She was just the third player in Big 12 history to win a conference weekly award across four consecutive weeks.