Cheese & Iowa State: A Closer Look at Wisconsin Connections on the No. 7 Seed in the DI Tournament

The Iowa State Cyclones are easily enjoying their best season in program history. They've won 25 games, the most ever at the school. They're ranked fifth in the latest AVCA poll. They're the only school to beat No.-2 ranked Texas this season and they ended a 75-game (!) losing streak to Nebraska. They also have several Wisconsinites to thank for a great deal of their success:

• Trudy Vande Berg, Assistant Coach (Waupun '95, UW-Milwaukee '99) is in her first season as an assistant with the Cyclones
  
• Joe Lynch, Volunteer Assistant (UW-Milwaukee '98) is in his fifth season
  
• Christy Johnson-Lynch, Head Coach (and former Badgers assistant) was recently named Big XII Coach of the Year
  
• Ashley Mass (Muskego '07) played in all 98 sets this season. She's the only libero ever to be named first-team All Big XII. And she was also just named Big XII libero of the year for the second straight season.
• Debbie Stadick (Watertown '08) played 95 of 98 sets. She recorded 224 kills and led the Cyclones with 95 total blocks.

Best of luck in the tournament -- unless, of course, you're up against the UW-Milwaukee Panthers, but looking at the brackets, that can't happen until the championship game ;)