Three-straight NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances. An NCAA era school-record 27 wins in 2009. School-record 17 Big 12 wins in 2009. Ninth in the nation in attendance.

Seven AVCA All-America honors. Nine AVCA All-Central Region selections. Eleven All-Big 12 performers. Twenty-two Big 12 Player of the Week awards. Twenty-one Academic All-Big 12 student-athletes.

The achievements listed above are just the tip of the iceberg when considering what has transpired for Iowa State volleyball in the last five years.

When it comes to turnarounds in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball, 2009 Big 12 Coach of the Year Christy Johnson-Lynch has orchestrated the ultimate at Iowa State.

When Johnson-Lynch arrived in Ames, ISU was in the midst of nine-straight losing seasons and a 13-167 stretch in Big 12 Conference play.

What transpired from there has been nothing short of phenomenal. Under Johnson-Lynch’s guidance, the program has posted a winning record each year and has qualified for the NCAA Tournament the last four seasons. The success culminated in Sweet 16 berths in 2007 and 2009, and an Elite Eight appearance in 2008. The Cyclones are one of just eight teams to reach the round of 16 in each of the last three seasons.

A perennial Big 12 cellar dweller prior to her arrival, the Cyclones have a 105-58 (.644) record under Johnson-Lynch, the fastest ISU coach to reach 100 career wins.

Iowa State has become a title contender in Big 12 play, compiling a 60-40 (.600) league mark and finishing second in the league in 2009 with a 17-3 record. The Cyclones have finished in the top half of one of the nation’s top conferences the last four seasons.

ISU has defeated 15 ranked teams in the last five years after posting just five upset victories in the previous 31 years of the program. Included in the current tally is wins over No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Nebraska in 2009, making the Cyclones the only team since 2003 to defeat both the Longhorns and Huskers in the same season. ISU joined national champion Penn State as the only team to defeat Texas in 2009.

The Cyclones’ victory over Johnson-Lynch’s alma mater, Nebraska, was the first in Iowa State history, snapping a 75-match skid that lasted 33 years. The 3-2 win in Lincoln made the Cyclones just the second team in 95 matches to win at NU Coliseum.

With success comes national notoriety and there has been no shortage of the lime light for Iowa State with Johnson-Lynch at the helm. The Cyclones earned their first-ever national ranking in 2007 and finished the 2009 season No. 6 in the country. ISU was ranked as high as fifth.

Johnson-Lynch, who was named Volleyball Magazine’s 2009 National Coach of the Year, and her staff’s ability to train have not gone unnoticed.

Individually, ISU players have garnered All-America honors seven times under Johnson-Lynch. Erin Boeve was the school’s first All-American in 2006, three players followed suit in 2008 and the same trio also earned the recognition in 2009. Ashley Mass became the school’s only first-team All-American, while Kaylee Manns repeated as a second-team pick and Victoria Henson jumped to third-team after being an honorable mention selection in 2008.

Under the direction of the 2009 AVCA Central Region Coach of the Year, ISU players have received all-conference recognition from the Big 12 on 14 occasions, including a school-record five players in 2008 and 2009.

Mass garnered Big 12 Libero-of-the-Year honors in 2008 and 2009, while Boeve was named the league’s top defensive player in 2006. Mass also became the first libero in conference history to be named to the league’s first team, where she was a unanimous pick. She was also unanimous selection in 2009 as the top libero.

Manns was one of the top setters in the country while training under Johnson-Lynch, an All-American setter herself. Manns, the ISU career record holder for assists, was the only player in Big 12 history to record over 5,500 assists, 1,000 digs, 300 kills and 300 blocks. She posted the top-four single-season assist marks in school history.

At outside hitter, they don’t get much better than Henson. Henson expanded her play this sesaon, becoming not only a dominant outside hitter but a capable back row defender for the Cyclones. The junior was the only Big 12 player to post 400 kills and 300 digs as she earned first-team All-Big 12 honors for the second time in her career.

The Omaha, Neb. native helped mentor Boeve, who capped a stellar career in 2007, into one of the Big 12’s best players. Boeve was a first-team All-Big 12 selection twice in her career and earned AVCA honorable mention All-America honors in 2006. The Big 12’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2006 had over 1,000 career kills and 590 total blocks.

“Hilton Magic” is no longer reserved for just basketball at Iowa State as Johnson-Lynch has helped transform Hilton Coliseum into one of the more difficult venues in which opposing teams could play. The Cyclones went 13-1 at home in 2009 and finished the season ranked third in the Big 12 and ninth in the country in attendance, averaging 2,734 spectators per match. With a revised seating setup, ISU’s attendance has risen by an eye-popping 338 percent since Johnson-Lynch’s first season.

The Cyclones saw a meteoric rise in fan support again in 2009. ISU sold over 600 season tickets after selling just over 100 in 2008 and a new student group, tagged the Cyd-Out Crew, was formed and had over 630 members sign up in its first season.

Last season, ISU saw one of the most memorable events in the school’s athletics history take place when a state of Iowa record 10,203 fans poured into Hilton Coliseum to see the eighth-ranked Cyclones face 10th-ranked Nebraska. It marked the fifth-largest crowd in the country in 2009.

Iowa State has exorcised many demons during Johnson-Lynch’s tenure in Ames. The Cyclones snapped losing streaks of 18 matches against Missouri, 20 to Kansas State and 21 against Texas A&M in addition to the long skid to the Huskers. ISU won for the first time against Colorado on the road since 1987 and beat Texas A&M for the first time in College Station during the 2006 campaign.

Iowa State has also held bragging rights against the three instate schools since Johnson-Lynch’s arrival, posting a 14-1 combined record against Drake, Iowa and Northern Iowa.

With the rapid improvement has come recruiting success. Iowa State’s 2009 class was ranked 10th in the country. The class ranked 25th in 2008.

In 2009, ISU made the step from good to elite, going 17-3 to finish second in the Big 12 and finishing 27-5 overall. The Cyclones achieved the top ranking in school history at No. 5 and finished the season sixth overall.

ISU’s three All-Americans was topped by only one team nationally. The Cyclones finished in the top-10 in the nation in assists (fourth), digs (fifth) and kills (eighth).

Individually, Manns led the Big 12 in assists (12.09), Mass led in digs (5.49) and Henson was third in kills per set (4.14). Freshman Jamie Straube was sixth in blocks (1.09).

In 2008, ISU took a huge step in becoming the all-around team that Johnson-Lynch knows is necessary to compete for Big 12 and national championships. While ISU became known for its defensive prowess in Johnson-Lynch’s first three seasons, the Cyclones transformed into one of the Big 12’s top offensive teams in 2008 and made a magical run to the Elite Eight that featured postseason wins over Northern Iowa, Minnesota and Oregon.

The Cyclones, who finished 22-13 overall, led the Big 12 in assists (13.38) while finishing third in kills (14.25) and fourth in hitting percentage (.234). The Cyclones also finished 13th in the country in kills.

ISU still held strong defensively, with Mass pacing the Big 12 with 5.01 digs per set en route to being named the league’s top libero by the coaches.

In 2007, Iowa State reached the NCAA Tournament for the second season in a row. The Cyclones finished 19-14 overall and 11-9 in league play. ISU continued its progression in tournament play, reaching the Sweet 16 of the tournament with an upset win over eighth-ranked Wisconsin on its home floor.

The Cyclones were one of the Big 12’s top defensive teams once again as the 2007 squad ranked second in the conference and ninth in the nation in blocks per set (3.28). ISU also finished third in the league in digs (16.53).

The 2006 Cyclones finished 21-11 and made the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history, advancing to the second round before falling to No. 10 Wisconsin. The Cyclones established new parameters for success, finishing 12-8 in the Big 12, which was good enough to earn a fourth-place finish.

The Cyclones finished in the top-15 nationally in blocks per set while leading the Big 12 in digs.

In her first year at the helm, Johnson-Lynch wasted little time in establishing the Cyclones as an up-and-coming program in the Big 12. Johnson-Lynch became the first ISU coach to win her first five matches and the Cyclones pulled off an upset of nationally-ranked Texas in her first Big 12 home match.

Johnson-Lynch led the Cyclones to their best season since the formation of the Big 12 in 1996. The Cyclones went 16-15 overall and recorded a school-record nine conference wins. To understand the significance of those nine wins, one should look to the previous school record of four in 2003. In fact, Iowa State won more conference matches in 2005 than it had in the previous seven years combined.

While the Cyclones have improved dramatically on the court, their efforts in the classroom have remained solid with 21 student-athletes earning academic All-Big 12 honors under Johnson-Lynch’s direction.

Johnson-Lynch is married to ISU volunteer volleyball coach Joe Lynch. The couple resides in Ames and has a son, Jamison, who was born in June of 2009.