The ISU soccer team split its

matches last weekend against Oklahoma and Southeast Missouri State,

but the Cyclones showed positive signs on Sunday for a possible Big

12 Tournament bid.

On Friday, the Cyclones lost, 2-1,

to Oklahoma in a matchup where both teams were previously winless

in the conference, and a blown call could have reversed that

result.

“I just feel like we’ve had some bad

breaks the past couple of weekends and in the Oklahoma game. There

should have been called a handball in the first 10 minutes, and we

could have been up 1-0,” said senior co-captain Emily

Hejlik.

Early on in the match, sophomore

midfielder Meredith Skitt passed the ball to fellow sophomore Emily

Goldstein, who then tried to cross the ball to forward Jennifer

Dominguez.

During that process, however, the

ball hit a defender’s arm but the referee missed the play and

instead of a penalty kick, the play resulted in a corner kick with

the Cyclones failing to score.

“That’s how soccer goes sometimes,”

Hejlik said. “That’s how all sports go.”

After the game, Hejlik said coach

Wendy Dillinger told the team to keep its head up and don’t dwell

on the past.

“You make your own luck, but we’ve

had some bad breaks,” Hejlik said. “She reiterated just staying

confident and working hard and control the controllables, and

that’s all we can do.”

On Sunday, the Cyclones faced a

Southeast Missouri State team that they had beaten, 5-0, in

preseason and continued the offense they left off with last

time.

The 2-0 victory was highlighted by a

shutout performance from goalkeeper Maddie Jobe while the offense

notched 23 shots as well. Goldstein said it was all about how they

prepared mentally.

“We just had a mind set that we

needed to score, and we were just so offensively minded,” Goldstein

said. “We knew that to win the next three games that we have ahead

of us, we needed to start putting away goals and putting away shots

on Sunday, so it was just preparation.”

The true test for the Cyclones will

be if they can replicate that offensive success against their final

three conference opponents and that offensive mind set will be key

in doing so.

“Defense is a big thing, but these

next three games are really going to be big, and we need to score,”

Goldstein said. “Defensively … we’re good enough to where if we

push up high enough and keep shooting and are just

offensive-minded, we’re going to be able to not get scored

on.”

In previous years, the Cyclones had

to finish in the top eight of the Big 12 in order to qualify. The

same goes for this year, but after Nebraska and Colorado left the

conference, only nine teams remain so they will be battling with

Oklahoma for the final spot.

“We never know what could happen

with the next couple games, with how other results end up,”

Goldstein said. “We just need to make sure we control our own

destiny by winning these next three games, and maybe things will

play out well and we could possibly make it to the

tournament.”

The Cyclones realize their toughest

conference matches are behind them and the final three games are

truly “win or go home” in terms of making the conference

tournament.

A “nothing to lose” mentality could

work in Iowa State’s favor, according to Hejlik.

“We’ve had some bad breaks, but

definitely we’ll approach this week and this weekend as a do or die

and prepare the same we’ve been preparing. But the stakes are

definitely higher,” Hejlik said.