AMES, Iowa — Soccer. Basketball. Volleyball. Kaylee Manns could have played any of those sports at the Division I level.
Soccer? “Too much running.”
Basketball? “There are a lot of bigger girls that can push me around.”
So Manns settled on volleyball. And the 5-foot-10 setter chose Iowa State.
Now, on the eve of the Cyclones' third straight Sweet 16 appearance, Manns' name fills ISU's record books.
The four-year starter, a senior from Topeka, Kan., will finish her Cyclone career as the undisputed best setter in school history and most certainly one of the best in the country this season.
Maybe more important, Manns will leave knowing that she played an integral role in ISU's turnaround from a downtrodden program (only one NCAA tournament appearance before she arrived) to a perennial power (four straight NCAA berths, No. 5 national ranking).
“Kaylee's been the perfect setter at the perfect time at Iowa State,” fifth-year ISU coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said. “We needed to bring in a setter that was going to be feisty, competitive and would not mind being an underdog or wouldn't be afraid to go up against teams that Iowa State has never beaten before. ... There was not anyone else in the country I would want setting this program over the last four years.”
‘So darn competitive'
Manns, now 21 years old, is a team captain. Friendly. Outgoing. A chatterbox.
But in elementary school, Vickie Manns said, her daughter was not always a perfect child.
“I spent so much time punishing her,” said Vickie, a high school science teacher.
When Kaylee was 4 or 5, she would steal the soccer ball away from her own teammates because they were dribbling too slowly. At 7 or 8, she got mad at a softball teammate for striking out; the teammate started crying.
“Kaylee was just so darn competitive, and she did not like to lose,” Vickie said. “Now she's nice to people, thank heavens.”
Of course, Manns' competitiveness is not gone. Johnson-Lynch calls her the “ultimate gamer,” though she no longer makes teammates cry.
Part of Manns' competitiveness probably is a product of her bloodlines.
Her father, Mike Manns, a news and sports director for six radio stations in Topeka, played football at Kansas State. Vickie played volleyball for two years at Kansas. And her older sister, Lacie, was a 6-foot-2 middle blocker who played volleyball at Seward County (Kan.) Community College before a knee injury cut short her playing career.
Though Lacie is five years older than Kaylee, Vickie said there was a little bit of a sibling rivalry. One time, Vickie said, Lacie hip-checked her younger sister, causing her to fall down a flight of carpeted stairs.
“That's probably why Kaylee's so tough,” Vickie said.
‘She's the boss'
A good setter, like a good quarterback in football, makes her teammates better.
The Cyclones' Kelsey Petersen, a sophomore right-side hitter from Kearney, Neb., said she had never played alongside a setter as savvy as Manns.
“I can't describe it; she puts up like a perfect set every time,” Petersen said.
Even when an errant pass sends Manns scurrying across the court, Petersen said, the setter will slide on her knees or contort her body in a way to set up her teammate for a good swing.
George Mason coach Pat Kendrick, whose team was swept by ISU last week in the first round of the NCAA tournament, said Manns' uncanny body control is hard to defend.
“Kaylee doesn't give away what she's going to do before it happens, and I think that's one of the things that makes her very good,” Kendrick said. “You really have to hold your ground, and you can't guess what she's going to do.”
Yet Petersen said it's more than Manns' setting skills that make her a good player. The Cyclones' all-time assists leader also blocks balls, is an offensive threat and is one of her team's best defenders.
In fact, Manns is the first player in Big 12 history to record 5,500 assists, 1,000 digs, 300 kills and 300 blocks in a career.
“She's the boss,” Petersen said. “We kind of follow her.”
‘Nothing fazes her'
Vickie Manns will be in the crowd Friday night when Iowa State plays Nebraska in an NCAA regional semifinal in Omaha. She's been to every match (tonight's will be No. 132), home and away, in her daughter's ISU career.
On treks to Lubbock, Texas, when the Cyclones played Texas Tech, Vickie was usually the only ISU fan in the building.
“I get home at 2:30 in the morning sometimes, but I wouldn't have missed a game,” she said. “It was so fun.”
A Qwest Center Omaha crowd of more than 10,000, most of them Husker fans, is expected at tonight's match.
Manns has said her goal this season is to get to the Final Four in Tampa, Fla. But first the Cyclones must win two matches this weekend. They've already beaten all three teams (Nebraska, Texas and Texas A&M) at the regional at least once this season, though NU and Texas split the season series with ISU.
With Manns as the floor general, Johnson-Lynch said, anything is possible.
“Nothing fazes her,” Johnson-Lynch said. “If our team's play is going to be determined by our setter's play, by Kaylee's play, I feel really good going into this weekend.”
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