Johnson-Lynch Named Big 12 Coach of the Year

[ChrisMWilliams]

AMES, Iowa – Coming off its best regular season in school history, the Iowa State volleyball team earned a record seven postseason honors from the Big 12. The league office announced today that head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch has been named Big 12 Coach of the Year and Ashley Mass was named the libero of the year for the second season in a row. Mass was a unanimous selection by the league’s coaches as libero.

Mass was also tabbed a First-Team All-Big 12, becoming the first libero in conference history to be named to the first team. The junior was a unanimous selection to the first team and was joined by teammates Kaylee Manns and Victoria Henson, who received the honor for the second time in their careers. Sophomore Rachel Hockaday picked up honorable mention honors and Jamie Straube was a unanimous selection to the all-freshman team.

Johnson-Lynch, who is in her fifth year as head coach of the Cyclones, led ISU to a 25-4 overall record and a second-place finish in the Big 12, the best finish in school history. She set school records for wins in a season (25) and Big 12 victories (17). Iowa State also became the first team since 2003 to defeat both Texas and Nebraska in the same season. ISU’s win over Nebraska was the first in school history, snapping a skid of 76 matches to the Huskers.

More online at Iowa State University Athletics Official Web Site - www.CYCLONES.com - The home of Iowa State Cyclone Sports.

 

[DaddyMac]

Great job coach! Well deserved.

 

[chadm]

What Coach has done for ISU Volleyball is amazing in five years.

 

[Ciclone]

Egggggggggscellent!

 

[coachdags]

Congrats to Coach CJ and her Staff a derserving Honor for sure.....

 

[joefrog]

What Coach has done for ISU Volleyball is amazing in five years.

Yep. Nothing short of a miracle.

Wonderful and humble person too. I bet she is a fun coach too.

So proud of her, her hubby, and our VB team. Great representatives of the ISU family.

 

[CyDude16]

Congrats to CJL, and the girls!

 

[Cycloin]

What Coach has done for ISU Volleyball is amazing in five years.

Reminiscent of BF and WBB...

 

[Tornado man]

Well done Christy! What a tremendous season, for a tremendous program.
Hate to add that we will probably always be fending off schools for her.
Wisconsin has headed into a downturn ever since BVD hired her away from there. Badger VB fans are already saying they want CJL back, this time as HC.

 

[Cyrocks]

I thought the Texas coach deserved it more.





I kid. I kid. Hopefully this will be the year for ISU coaches getting Big 12 COY awards.

 

[Enginerd]

Well deserved. She raises the bar higher every year. Props to the Coach, staff, players, and AD.

 

[becrisgreg]

Reminiscent of BF and WBB...

No disrespect to Bill and what he has accomplished and sustained in the WBB program, but what Coach Johnson-Lynch has done with the VB program is a greater accomplishment. Nice discussion to have which coach has done a better job in building a program - no wrong answers only winners! Hopefully Christy can sustain the success and take it to the next level. I have a feeling she is only scratching the surface.

Here are the conference results of ISU's VB team since the founding of the BigXII.

96 3-17
97 1-19
98 1-19
99 1-19
00 0-20
01 1-19
02 1-19
03 4-16
04 1-19

05 9-11
06 12-8
07 11-9
08 11-9
09 17-3

 

[gwoodclone]

Congrats to Coach!

What she has done here is simply stunning.

 

[ornryactor]

Damn straight, I say. She absolutely deserved this. Go read that full press release- the list of end-of-season awards and honors for Iowa State just goes on and on and on.

Can we please get this woman a lifetime contract already?

 

[mred]

For comparison, ISU WBB conference records since WBB became a Big 8 sport through BF's first 6 years:

83 3-9
84 0-14
85 3-11
86 8-6
87 2-12
88 5-9
89 6-8
90 3-11
91 6-7
92 2-12
93 1-13
94 3-11
95 1-13

96 5-9
97 9-7 (first year of Big 12)
98 12-4
99 12-4
00 13-3
01 12-4

Not trying to derail this thread. CJL greatly deserves this accolade, and I really hope she's still here 15 years down the road.

 

[Cycloin]

No disrespect to Bill and what he has accomplished and sustained in the WBB program, but what Coach Johnson-Lynch has done with the VB program is a greater accomplishment. Nice discussion to have which coach has done a better job in building a program - no wrong answers only winners! Hopefully Christy can sustain the success and take it to the next level. I have a feeling she is only scratching the surface.

Here are the conference results of ISU's VB team since the founding of the BigXII.

96 3-17
97 1-19
98 1-19
99 1-19
00 0-20
01 1-19
02 1-19
03 4-16
04 1-19

05 9-11
06 12-8
07 11-9
08 11-9
09 17-3

Oh, no argument here. I just remember as a student in the mid '80's going to a WBB game and there could not have been more than 400 people there. I am guessing the same was true for VB before CJL arrived. That's the comparison I was alluding to. We are damn lucky to have both here...

 

[joefrog]

Reminiscent of BF and WBB...

Great comparison as far as people. If you have not met or talked to them sometime, then you should.

I have talked to BF several times. The guy is such a Clone fan too. He sat right in front of us in KC for the KSU game. Cheered like a true Cyclone.

CJL's turnaround is little more impressive though. Let's hope she can sustain it.

 

[LindenCy]

Great news! Congrats!

 

[DaddyMac]

Oh, no argument here. I just remember as a student in the mid '80's going to a WBB game and there could not have been more than 400 people there. I am guessing the same was true for VB before CJL arrived. That's the comparison I was alluding to. We are damn lucky to have both here...

Ha!

400 for volleyball when I was in school would've been a season high - if not outright total. :wink:

 

[cyclone13]

Well-deserved accolade for Coach Johnson-Lynch!