The Cyclone soccer team found itself at a pivotal point in their season after losing their first two conference games of the season to Texas and Texas A&M.

Iowa State (6-5-1, 0-2 Big 12) entered the bye week in need of improvements if it was going to be successful in the remaining games of the season.

“[The bye week] got us refocused and got us ready for the tough weekend ahead knowing that Oklahoma State is the No. 2 team in the country,” Morgan said. “We do know that [this game] is to our advantage though, since they have never beat us in Ames.”

Iowa State will face No. 2 Oklahoma State in Ames, and for sophomore forward Brittany Morgan, the challenge of playing a team of that caliber is accepted after a feeling of being well-rested as well as accomplishing a lot during the week away from games.

The off-week for the Cyclones was not only a physical recuperation period but a mental one as well. While trying to balance soccer with school, the bye week came a good time for senior defender Emily Hejlik.

“It was very important for people and their bodies and even to just get refocused on school,” Hejlik said. “We just re-energized and it was good for people to lay low, but it also gave us an opportunity to work on things that we have been struggling with. We also even worked on things that we are good at just to get even better at those things.”

ISU coach Wendy Dillinger also sees the bye week as an asset to the team to implement skills that would ordinarily be too time-consuming during the season with games every weekend and feels that the team made great improvements even in one week’s time.

“[Practices] were more individual-based going back to individual responsibilities with attacking and defending,” Dillinger said. “They had partners [in their drills] and had to work hard for their partner. We tried to focus on smaller groups because when you start playing smaller numbers, you get exposed a lot more if you are not doing your job, so we tried to make it so there was no place to hide.”

The Cyclones’ game against Oklahoma State will begin Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the ISU Soccer Complex.