The ISU volleyball team will kick off its spring season with a familiar foe — in-state rival Iowa. 

Iowa State will make the trip to Iowa City for another chapter in the CyHawk series on Tuesday to start its two-game, two-tournament April. 

The Cyclones are coming off a win against the Hawkeyes in the 2014 fall season, winning in three sets. It improved head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch’s record against Iowa to 9-0. 

Even though the spring season doesn’t account for the team’s overall goal, a game against the Hawkeyes can never be overlooked. 

“I think [the game] always [matters],” Johnson-Lynch said. “We [are] not going to put too much on it, it’s a spring match, it doesn’t count. We will do some things, not necessarily to win, but to evaluate and get bettter, just to try out. But I’m sure it’ll be fun and we’ll get pretty fired up for it.”

A new face will join the Cyclones. 

Freshman middle blocker Grace Lazard, a London native, is the first international student-athlete during the Johnson-Lynch era. She played 15 matches for England’s junior national team and became the leading scorer for England during the 2013 Youth Volleyball European Championships.  

Tuesday will be the start of Lazard’s journey with the ISU volleyball team.

“She’s very physical, especially coming in as a freshman,” Johnson-Lynch said. “She’s a big, big presence. She’s catching up to the speed. The game was fast for her when she got here, but she seems more and more comfortable. Some days she comes in and it’s like ‘wow, this person is legit.’ It’s that, can she do it consistently?”

The Cyclones are facing a season without Taylor Goetz and 2014 All-Big 12 First Team outside hitter Victoria Hurtt.

But the losses don’t seem to be too much of a problem for the team after a successful recruiting class. Johnson-Lynch said there is depth at every position and that it is one of the deepest teams she has coached at Iowa State. 

Along with depth, the Cyclones will also focus on specific parts of their game this spring. Johnson-Lynch said blocking and setting will be important moving forward. 

“We want both setters [to] feel like we are running a great offense, that they’re very confident and comfortable in what their doing,” she said. “[Blocking] has been something that I’ve been obsessed with. We made strides in the fall, but I think we can be an elite blocking team, but we aren’t there yet, we still have some work to do.”

The Cyclones will take on the Hawkeyes at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Iowa City.