Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler’s ISU softball team saw their season come to an end on Saturday after it dropped games of a doubleheader to Missouri on Saturday.

For their leader on and off the field, senior pitching ace Rachel Zabriskie, it was not just the end of the season, but the end of a celebrated collegiate career.

“Afterwards, I just told her thank you, because I think she has been great for our program,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said of the lone senior on her team. “I mean, she is a great softball player but she’s an even better person. So I just told her that I appreciated everything that she had done — all of her hard work — and I wish her the best.”

Zabriskie finished the season with a record of 14-18 and a 4.28 ERA. The Austin, Texas native will leave Iowa State as the all-time leader in wins (67) and strikeouts (815).

Those 815 strikeouts put Zabriskie at 10th all-time in conference history for strikeouts in a career.

In the 49 games the Cyclones played this season, Zabriskie made 34 starts, highlighted by the dethroning of two nationally-ranked teams in Oklahoma State and Baylor, both of which were ranked 17th at the time the Cyclones played them.

The leading candidates to inherit Zabriskie’s starts next season will be freshman Bree Holliday and junior Lauren Kennewell.

Holliday posted a 3-5 record this season with a 5.88 ERA while Kennewell had a 2-3 record and a 6.59 ERA, with most of her innings coming in relief work.

As the Cyclones prepare for the post-Zabriskie era, Gemeinhardt-Cesler sees the past season as one of growth, but also knows there were some missed opportunities.

“There were definitely times when I thought that if we could play like this all the time, then we are going to have a lot of success,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “Then I think we could look back at some games that we should have won, and I think those really hurt us.”

The Cyclones’ roster this past season held 10 freshman, several of whom were put into roles that required major contribution. Shortstop Sara Davison and right fielder Anna Cole were both full-time starters this past season, along with several other freshmen who started sporadically throughout the season.

“I think we had a couple good conference wins and the big thing I thought is that we showed a lot of promise at times, but at the same time we showed our youth and we struggled with consistency other times,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said.

The Cyclones end the 2011 season with a 21-28 record overall a 3-15 record in conference play, good for a ninth place finish in the Big 12.