“I miss you”: Gabbie Marshall, Lucy Olsen and more adore Iowa’s Sydney Affolter for her “favorite moments of 2024”

As the new year begins, Iowa women's basketball star, Sydney Affolter shared her favorite moments of 2024 in a series of snaps on her Instagram page. This included pics with her fellow teammates and loved ones on and off the court.

"My fav 2024 moments🖤🪩" she captioned the post.

Former Hawkeyes player Gabbie Marshall, star forward Lucy Olsen and other teammates took to the comment section to react to her posts. Here are some of their reactions:

Lucy Olsen wrote,"SYDDDD😍😍."

Addi O'Grady wrote,"cutie."

Gabbie Marshall wrote, "I MISS YOU," to which Affolter replied,"I MISS YOU MORE."

Taylor Stremlow wrote, "my girlll❤️❤️❤️."

Iowa women's basketball players react to Sydney Affolter's post. IG image via @sydney.affolter

Sydney Affolter recovers her rhythm post knee injury

Following the exit of Caitlin Clark, Gabbie Marshall and other key Iowa players, Sydney Affolter was among the seniors expected to take over leadership positions in the Hawkeyes team.

However, the senior guard suffered a serious knock to her knee which sidelined her at the start of the 2024-25 season. She could only put up 5.1 points per game through her first eight contests of her senior season.

“Syd is, in the best way, stubborn. Syd won’t realize that she was out six weeks, so Syd just wanted to be: ‘I’m back. I’m good,’” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said per KCRG. “I think what we’ve been seeing is she hadn’t hit that rhythm.”

Affolter proved that she had indeed hit her rhythm in Iowa's 75-69 win over in-state rival Iowa State on Dec. 15, where she scored a season-high 16 points.

“There’s really no excuses, I just needed to be more aggressive on the offensive end,” Affolter said after the game. “I know my role is different than last year and I need to take more shots, and that’s what I wanted to do so I was definitely more aggressive-minded today (against Iowa State).”

In Iowa's final game of 2024 against Purdue, Affolter exhibited her all-around game in the Hawkeyes' 84-63 win in the Big Ten home opener at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday. She contributed nine points, seven rebounds and six assists as Iowa improved to 11-2 this season. Jensen hopes to see the senior guard increase her momentum when Iowa travels to face Penn State on New Year's Day.