The ISU soccer team has gotten off

to a rough start in the Big 12 this season, going winless in its

first four conference games.

With just five games left, four

being conference matchups, midfielder Emily Goldstein said it’s a

must-win situation from here on out.

“We’re just looking at these games

now, and it’s either do or die for us,” Goldstein said. “We just

need to make sure that we know what we have ahead of us with these

last conference games and that we need to win in order to make it

to the Big 12 conference tournament.”

The top eight of the nine teams in

the Big 12 advance to the conference tournament at the end of the

season.

Last year, the final two teams to

advance had four conference wins each and with four conference

games left, senior co-captain Emily Hejlik said there’s nowhere to

go but up.

“We’ve had opportunities, even

against the No. 2 team in the country [Oklahoma State], we were

neck-and-neck with them,” Hejlik said. “So I think really focusing

on finishing our opportunities is the main difference between us

winning and losing so far. We just need to play like we have

nothing to lose, because we don’t.”

Iowa State faced undefeated Oklahoma

State last Friday and lost 1-0 on a last-second goal. Similarly,

the Cyclones were unable to convert on several opportunities in a

2-0 loss to Baylor on Sunday.

However, Goldstein believes staying

positive will help turn that around in the final

stretch.

“I feel like when we get in the box

and we miss, we put our heads down and we just get too down on

ourselves, and we’re like ‘ugh, I’m never going to score now,’”

Goldstein said. “We just need to make that we need to keep firing

shots and you’re not going to make every shot but when you do have

the opportunity, we need to make sure that we’re putting it away or

putting ourselves in a good position to where we can put that

away.”

After the Baylor loss, coach Wendy

Dillinger had some words of encouragement for the players regarding

looking toward the final stretch of the season.

“If we can go out and play the way

we did against Oklahoma State on Friday, there’s no reason we can’t

go out and play like that every game,” Dillinger said. “And if we

do, we’re going to get results. But we’re young and I just told

them it’s time to understand that that can’t be a factor anymore,

and we have to step up and perform.”

On the defensive end, one reason the

Cyclones were able to keep it so close against Oklahoma State was

containing the Cowgirls’ star player, Krista Lopez, and only had a

few mental lapses against Baylor which allowed the Bears to score

twice within five minutes.

However, defensive cohesiveness

should help improve that as they move forward.

“I think the big thing is just

working together as a unit,” said sophomore defender Jessica

Stewart. “That’s something that we’ve been focusing on a lot this

year.”

Hejlik and fellow senior Mary Kate

McLaughlin have yet to make it to the Big 12 tournament since

coming to Iowa State, and Stewart said it is obvious they do not

want to leave on a losing note.

“They don’t want to go out with a

losing season; they want to go out going to Big 12s and making a

statement for Iowa State soccer and for themselves, for their

class,” Stewart said. “Their heart and their passion is just to see

us succeed because they know that we can. So they just want to see

us put a consistent effort on the field because they know that

we’ll have results.”

The Cyclones face Oklahoma on the

road Friday at 7 p.m. before getting a break from the conference

matchups against Southeast Missouri State on Sunday at 1

p.m.

Iowa State then takes on Texas Tech

and Kansas the following weekend before finishing the regular

season on the road against Missouri. If all goes according to plan,

that game will carry quite a bit of significance.