KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s hard to imagine that anyone saw this coming.

After a losing season in 2012 that saw the ISU soccer team go 1-7 in conference play and fail to make the Big 12 tournament for the fifth-straight year, there didn’t seem like much reason for optimism.

Yet the 2013 team was lead by a senior class that had spent four years in the program and was injected with a shot of youthful exuberance by a freshman class that put four starters on the field.

These were the ingredients that propelled the Cyclones to their first Big 12 tournament appearance since 2007 and a No. 4 final ranking, the highest since 2005.

The Cyclones comeback season came to an abrupt end Wednesday with a 1-0 loss to Baylor in Kansas City. It was near poetic justice for the Bears after falling to the Cyclones in a 1-0 overtime matchup on Oct. 18, despite the fact they outshot the Cyclones 21-7.

Even with the loss, freshman Koree Willer can still focus on the team’s accomplishments.

“Breaking out from being a joke and the last team in the conference to being a prominent team that can win games and can make a difference, making that transition [is] huge,” Willer said.

ISU interim head coach Tony Minatta cites the cohesiveness of talent and a will to win as a factor in the team’s ability to reach new milestones.

“The seniors finally came into a point of maturity and a group of freshman came in that brought a mix of talent and a winning attitude,” Minatta said. “When you put that talent with that mentality, good things happen.”

Minatta filled the role as head coach after former coach Wendy Dillinger, who guided the Cyclones for the past seven years, did not have her contract renewed and was not given the option to coach the team in the tournament.

Dillinger’s departure

It was announced Sunday, just three days before the start of the tournament, that Dillinger would no longer be coaching the team.

With the tournament fast approaching, would the team be affected by the loss of their head coach?

“Absolutely not,” said senior goalkeeper Maddie Jobe. “We were so focused on [Baylor], so a lot of people were in good shape.”

Willer said that the team’s will to play for each other is what led them to keep focused on the tournament.

“The whole season, we’ve been taking the approach that we play for each other no matter what,” Willer said. “The emotion is there and either way we are playing for each other.”

Leaving a legacy

The 2013 senior class spent the last three years trying to get to the tournament and remove the stigma that the program was carrying.

Now that they have led the team to heights not seen since before Dillinger’s tenure, what is their legacy? Minatta doesn’t think it will be found in a record book.

“The legacy of this senior class is not that they made it back to the tournament for the first time in six years, but what they instilled in the freshman to want to play and keep the tradition of getting back here,” Minatta said. “The reality is that the record book will show that they got to the tournament, but those freshman will be what takes it to another level.”

Willer will be one of the returning players to carry the torch passed down by the senior class and she plans on returning to the Big 12 tournament.

“I love this team, and I’m really upset that we’re losing the seniors we are because we’ve been so thankful we’ve had them, and it’s going to be a huge transition,” Willer said. “But at the same time, [we] are strong players.”

Big shoes to fill

Ten seniors finished their careers as Cyclones against the Bears, leaving the door open for younger players to step in.

How can next season’s team replace Jennifer Dominguez, Emily Goldstein and Jobe, three of the most statistically prolific players in recent years?

Senior Jessica Reyes thinks the teams in the coming years will have no problem.

“It’s funny, in soccer I don’t feel like there is ever a player that is not replaceable and I feel like you’re always going to get someone that will step up into their own right when they need to,” Reyes said. “When you look at the team, there isn’t a position they can’t fill.

“I know they can only go on from here.”