Before the seniors stepped onto the field against Oklahoma State for their last home game, they entered a locker room decorated by the freshmen, honoring the class on senior night. To nobody’s surprise, there were few dry eyes in the room.

But for the first time in six years, the final regular season game did not end the entire season. As the seniors walked off the field on Friday, they had a rare trifecta of accomplishments: a win on senior night, a winning season, and a Big 12 tournament appearance to look forward to. 

However, the team realizes the excitement can’t last forever. In fact, besides a post-game celebration, the women were back to work after a night of sleep.

“Obviously, we’ve never done this before,” said Jessica Reyes of making the Big 12 tournament. “Letting ourselves take a day to celebrate [was] good, but we know we have to turn around and practice hard for a Baylor team that we barely beat.”

The pressure of beating a team twice in one season is hard enough, but Baylor’s overtime loss to the Cyclones on a day where they out-shot Iowa State 21-7 is sure to inject even more motivation into the Bears.

Interim head coach Tony Minatta said the team worked more on pressure drills in the few days of practice to prepare for another strong Baylor attack. Even with the excitement of the postseason looming, Minatta says the team has not lost focus.

“Saturday’s practice was pretty light, but on Sunday we had the whole group back together,” Minatta said. “They played incredibly well [Sunday] and looked sharp, looked good, and from what I can see they are incredibly focused and looking forward to the opportunity.”

The Cyclones arrived in Kansas City on Monday in preparation for their 11:30 a.m. game on Nov. 6. The team was scheduled for an hour-long practice session on Nov. 5 in the only formal practice the Cyclones will get before taking on Baylor in the tournament.

Minatta said the 11:05 a.m. time slot for practice is directly after Baylor’s practice on Nov. 5. The Cyclones hope to benefit from the similar time slots that practice and game times happen to fall.

The team isn’t sweating the early kickoff, either. Iowa State played two noon games this season, winning both by a combined score of 6-0. Baylor only played one noon game this season, a loss to West Virginia.

However, game time is likely not going to have much effect on the two teams ready to play in the Big 12 tournament. The Cyclones are prepared to defend a Baylor attack that failed to produce a goal against them in Ames.

“They are a good team and play a very unique style,” said goalkeeper Maddie Jobe. “We know what they are really good at, but we also know what their weaknesses are, so I think we are prepared.”

For the seniors, however, the game will bring together a unit that has stuck together for four seasons. In what has been an emotional and breakthrough season for the team, the graduating class has made it a memorable one.

“We are unified on and off the field,” Reyes said. “We all wore all yellow [in our last practice] of the regular season against the underclassmen and just to see the way after playing together for four years knowing what each person is going to do … it’s beautiful. I’m going to miss them all.”