Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | fall 2006

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IN SHARP FOCUS
ISU'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM KNOWS NOW MORE THAN EVER WHAT IT WANTS AND HOW TO GET IT

Eventually, Christy Johnson stopped thinking about it every morning.

When her 2005 Cyclone volley-ball team blanked Kansas 3-0 in its last match of the season, it clinched ISU’s first winning volleyball season in 10 years.
The 16-15 Cyclones would finish seventh in the Big 12 Conference standings, just above the 15-15 Jayhawks – the Jayhawks they had beaten twice during the year. It was a dream come true for Johnson’s players, none of whom had ever before smelled the possibility of postseason play. Elation filled the locker room. Fans and families grinned from ear to ear. The rookie head coach had capped an amazing turnaround, and ISU’s second-ever NCAA tournament appearance was just one announcement away.

The next day, the coaches and players would watch that announcement with great anticipation. But that’s when it hit them. It was one of those moments when reality steps up and smacks you in the face: Kansas was in; Iowa State was out.

“For a while there, it was the first thing I thought about in the morning,” Johnson admits. “But we have to accept it and realize that Kansas played a tougher
pre-conference schedule.”

For Johnson, the experience gave her greater understanding of what a fine line must be walked when it comes to scheduling challenging but winnable non-conference games.

For Nicole Lorenzen, a senior outside hitter, the experience sent a strong message to the team: Every match counts.

“We just have to go into every single match and know that it is important,” she says. “Even non-conference matches that can seem unimportant at the time.”
“We all remember how we felt that day; it was heartbreaking,” junior middle blocker Erin Boeve says. “But now I’m just excited to see what we can do this year. We’ve got that winning attitude, and getting a taste of success just makes us want to win more.”

If the Cyclone volleyball players have chips on their shoulders, they probably aren’t going to let them weigh them down. Instead, they’re using last year’s snub as motivation to make their postseason bid undeniable in 2006. And the way to do it, they say, is on the court.
“We beat KU last year, and I think it’s important that we beat them again,” says senior Katie Churm with a look of steadfast determination. “I just think that’s
very important.”

Lorenzen would love to take down Kansas State. Boeve says handing Texas one of its five losses last season makes her hungry to do it again. Really, the players say, it’s any Big 12 match. When you play
in one of the nation’s toughest conferences, you have to have that fire in your belly.

It’s a conference, and a fire, Johnson knows well. She was the starting setter on Nebraska’s 1995 national championship team.

“I feel like I had an amazing experience in college,” Johnson says. “It was about wins and losses, but it was also about so much more than that – about growing up and learning. I just want our players to have those experiences, too.”

If Johnson’s approach sounds didactic, that’s no coincidence: Until life grabbed her by the wrist and led her to assistant coaching job at Wisconsin in 1997, she thought she would spend her career as
a high school math teacher.

It’s a background that has influenced her coaching style.

“I’m pretty positive,” she says. “I don’t criticize too much. I feel like our purpose here is to help these women grow and mature. I’m pretty reserved – not a big yeller – but I have pretty high expectations.”

They are expectations players like Boeve are happy to meet. “She’s brought so much energy to the team,” Boeve says. “We wouldn’t be where we are without her and her staff.”

Adds Churm: “Christy is a motivation for all of us.”

Johnson admits she didn’t know much about Iowa State when she arrived on campus for her interview last year. “I knew I wanted to be in the Midwest, stay in a big conference, and move closer to home,” she says.

But when she saw ISU, Johnson knew she had found a perfect match. “I loved the campus when I came for a visit,” she says. “The university has great academics, and I knew it would be easy to sell to recruits.” And with a wealth of volleyball talent in the upper Midwest and what she describes as a really strong administrative and support staff, Johnson knew she could be successful as a Cyclone.

It’s a level of success Johnson says will be possible with the help of new ISU athletics director Jamie Pollard, whom she had watched rise in the ranks while she was on the staff at Wisconsin. “I was very excited when Jamie Pollard got hired [by ISU],” Johnson says. “I just knew that if they got him here he would be amazing.” She says Pollard’s plans to upgrade athletics facilities will help the volleyball program with recruiting and providing a better gameday atmosphere – both key, she says, to building a winner.

As the new volleyball season gears up, the Cyclones are gunning for a finish in the top half of the Big 12. It’s all part of what Johnson, Lorenzen, Boeve, and Churm all say is a top priority in 2006:

“We want to get to the NCAA tournament,” Lorenzen says. “And not just make it, but win there.”

About the Writer | Kate Bruns is the associate editor of VISIONS magazine.

Sports Briefs

Gymnastics coach says goodbye to ISU,
hello to Sooners
ISU gymnastics fans were rocked in early June by the news that head coach K.J. Kindler (speech comm. ’92), who led the 2006 Cyclones to a Big 12 Championship and their first-ever national Super Six appearance, had accepted the head coaching position at the University of Oklahoma.

“We are very disappointed to see Coach Kindler leave Iowa State University. We offered her everything that we could reasonably offer,” said ISU athletics director Jamie Pollard. “Iowa State will remain nationally competitive in gymnastics and will not play second fiddle to anyone. We will continue to invest in this program and do everything in our power to keep the Big 12 gymnastics trophy in Ames.”

Jay Ronayne was hired in July to replace Kindler. Ronayne comes to Iowa State after four seasons as the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Auburn University.

2006 Athletics Hall of Fame class announced
The ISU Letterwinners Club and the ISU Athletics Department recently revealed ISU’s 2006 Hall of Fame Class. Among those who will be honored Sept. 9 during Hall of Fame Weekend:

• Beth Bader (exercise and sport science ’97), golf
• Jon Brown, cross country and track and field, 1989-92
• John Crawford (phys ed ’59), basketball
• Barry Hill (sociology ’74), football
• Russ Hoffman (dist stds ’73), gymnastics
• Jerry McNertney (phys ed ’78), baseball
• Hugo Otopalik, wrestling and golf coach,
1920s to 1940s
• Keith Sims (indust ed ’90), football
• Clay Stapleton, football coach from 1958-70 and athletics director from 1967-70
• Winnifred Tilden, women’s athletics pioneer, 1904-44