The confidence level of the Cyclones is up after their win against Northern Illinois. They hope to take advantage of it this weekend against three top-25 teams.

Iowa State (3-5, 0-2 Big 12) will face No. 9 Nebraska (5-1, 4-1 Big Ten) and No. 16 Boise State (6-1) in a three-team meet on Feb. 22 in Lincoln, Neb., and will then take on No. 12 Minnesota (12-0, 4-0 Big Ten) in its final home meet of the season on Feb. 24.

“We’re really excited coming off of that win; it was a good confidence booster,” said junior Michelle Shealy. “Coming off that win and improving every meet is definitely good for the team and good for our confidence.”

In Iowa State’s win against Northern Illinois, it tallied a team score of over 195 for the first time this season.

“We’re building momentum and everyone can feel that,” said ISU coach Jay Ronayne. “We’re excited to see what we can do at Nebraska and excited that we’re going to be competing at home on Sunday.”

In the past two years, Nebraska has narrowly edged out Iowa State twice. Both losses for the Cyclones were by less than one point.

The schedule remains difficult for the Cyclones in their final home meet this season. Iowa State will face a perfect Minnesota team, a team it has already lost to this season.

“[Nebraska] is an arena we really like. They’re a really competitive team so we’re excited to see what they have to offer,” said senior Elizabeth Stranahan. “Minnesota is so close; we’ve always been rivals. [Because] they beat us last time, we’re really going in and we want to show them what we’re made of.”

To help keep Iowa State’s confidence up and encourage one another during a meet, the Cyclones have been working on their presentation for this weekend.

“This last meet we kind of added a few fun things on floor, like some fun cheers during our floor routines,” Shealy said. “We talked after the meet about not only doing that on floor but maybe coming up with some fun things for the other events, too, just to have more fun, because that really helped.”