For the ISU women’s hockey club, the bar for the 2014-15 season is the highest it could possibly be after winning the ACHA Division II Women’s National Championship last season.

And the Cyclones are up for the challenge.

“We definitely want to make it back to the national championship this year,” said coach Dustin Herbert. “Making it there is our number one goal.”

Herbert, along with his players, share the ultimate ambition for the upcoming season: becoming only the second team in ACHA Division II history to repeat national titles since Rainy River Community College of International Falls, Minn., in the 2008-09 season.

Looking ahead to the upcoming 2014-15 season, the Cyclones will return all but one player, forward Hailie Bennewitz, who graduated this past May. Despite that, the club will welcome back every one of its top five goal and assist leaders, bringing its chances at another national title even more within reach.

“I think we should have a really good team this year,” Herbert said. “We’ve got a lot of good freshmen trying out too, so hopefully the team gets even better and [making a run at the national tournament] should be a little bit easier.”

Herbert, who began as assistant coach in the spring of last year, will replace his brother, Derek, as head coach this season.

“The experience from last year was very helpful,” Herbert said. “I love being around hockey, so I was more than happy to take over this year.”

One of the top offensive producers for the Cyclones last season was forward Millie Luedtke. Luedtke, a native of Orono, Minn., led the club in goals with 22 as well as finishing fifth in assists with nine. In addition, she was named the 2014 ACHA Division II National Tournament MVP, netting five goals in the tournament, including the deciding goal in a 1-0 championship victory against Penn State.

Despite her personal accomplishments, Luedtke credits last season’s success to the club as a whole.

“It was a team effort,” Luedtke said. “We couldn’t have gotten where we did if we didn’t work as a team. We stuck together and pushed each other to perform at our best.”

Goalie Sophie Puente, another influential member of that team, led the Cyclones last season in saves with 209, wins with 10 and shutouts with four. As a freshman, she recorded a .897 save percentage, shutting out Rainy River 1-0 in her first start.

“Just to play for this team was exciting,” Puente said. “I didn’t even expect to be playing college hockey.”

Applying her recently gained experience in net, Puente hopes to play an even more substantial role this year.

“I hope to be someone the team can rely on,” Puente said.

The Cyclones, who finished 21-5-1 last season, will begin the road to the national championship with two tough matchups against three-time national champion Rainy River and North Dakota State, the team that accounted for three of the club’s five losses last season, North Dakota State.

Although the Bison may be seeking revenge after suffering a 6-5 loss to the Cyclones in the 2014 National Tournament Semifinals, Herbert is not worried.

“We’re all really excited for that game,” Herbert said. “They got the best of us three times last year, but I think we figured out their strategy pretty well at the end of last year. I think we all know we can beat them.”

Amidst all of the hype of potential back-to-back championships, however, the players are excited simply to see the support of the ISU community behind them this season.

“We have people already excited to come to our games and it’ll be fun to see how the student population at Iowa State supports us,” Luedtke said. “We have a lot of talented athletes and it shouldn’t go unnoticed.”

The women’s hockey club is set to begin the season against North Dakota State on Oct. 25.