For the first time since coach Wendy Dillinger took the helm of the ISU soccer team in 2008, the Cyclones will have a bye week this weekend.

After starting conference play with back-to-back losses to Texas and Texas A&M last weekend, senior co-captain Emily Hejlik hopes the refresher can help put the Cyclones (6-5-1, 0-2 Big 12) back on the winning track.

“I think it will give us even more time to game plan for Oklahoma State and Baylor and also to work on the things that we’re good at and the things that we need to work on, so I think it will more than help us,” Hejlik said.

After traveling to Texas last weekend, the bye week comes at a much-needed time for the Cyclones, and sophomore Emily Goldstein said it’s a great opportunity to be able to work hard and then re-energize over the weekend.

“It’s going to be a good week for us to go hard, and this way we can go hard every day and we don’t have to hold back,” Goldstein said. “We’ll be able to recharge this weekend and we’ll be able to come back next week a lot fresher and it’ll give us a better perspective on the rest of the season and what we need to do.”

In years past, players have gotten the day off when there has only been one game in a weekend instead of two. This time around, however, Dillinger said it will be a little bit of both.

“Basically [Tuesday], [Wednesday] and Thursday, we are doing a very intense competitive small set of games, more like individual-based things,” Dillinger said. “Really working on one-on-one attacking, two-on-two attacking, just the attacking personality and on the flip side of that is our discipline in defending.”

On Friday and Saturday, players will get a break and practices will resume on Sunday to prepare for Baylor and Oklahoma State.

Dillinger also added that the goals allowed last weekend were miscues not on the physical level but the mental level, and the Cyclones plan to work on that aspect over the bye week as well.

“Basically all five goals we gave up this past weekend in Texas were all mental mistakes, just mental breakdowns that good teams capitalize on,” Dillinger said. “If we’re going to win games in this conference, we have to correct that.”

When it comes to bye weeks, some coaches believe they can set a team back because of too much rest, but Dillinger said it is a positive and will help reinvigorate the team for competition.

“I think it helps,” Dillinger said. “Our season is so compact, we cram so many games into a short period of time and it’s a sport that’s very demanding. Playing two games in a 48-hour period is difficult; it really wears on them.”

Once the Cyclones resume play, four of their remaining seven games will be at home, and junior co-captain Megan Long said it is crucial to take advantage of that.

“One of our team goals is to be undefeated at home, which we still have and we’d still like to do,” Long said. “It’s really important to get those wins at home just because wins on the road at Big 12 are really hard, so we don’t want to rely on winning on the road.

“So if we take advantage of the wins at home, it will be much easier for us.”