Another season is in the books for the Cyclone soccer team, and despite not making the Big 12 tournament, there’s plenty to build on.

The season got off to an interesting start right out of the gates, with a flood ruining the field at the ISU Soccer Complex. The team was forced to practice in the Bergstrom Indoor Facility as well as play their first “home” game in Ankeny, which ended in a 0-0 tie, but the Cyclones took the cards they were dealt and kept going.

“We have great leadership with the upperclassmen, just good personalities, good character, and not really players who make excuses in that upperclassmen group,” coach Wendy Dillinger said. “The upperclassmen weren’t complaining about it, the coaching staff wasn’t complaining about it, you just deal with it and move forward and that’s what we did. I think the leadership from the upperclassmen through that period was huge.”

Another obstacle the Cyclones had to overcome were injuries. The team was forced to redshirt sophomore midfielder Amanda Woelfel due to an offseason injury, and then senior starting keeper Ashley Costanzo suffered an injury in their third game against Montana. Costanzo was out for the vast majority of the rest of the games.

“Losing Ashley hurt for two reasons. Maddie [Jobe]’s talented, but she didn’t have anybody to push her once Ashley got hurt,” Dillinger said. “For Ashley having played behind Ann [Gleason] for the majority of three years, we were really looking forward to her being in the net for us.”

The freshman Jobe was in a close battle in preseason with Costanzo for the starting spot, a situation that Jobe believes helped her be better prepared for starting at the collegiate level.

Jobe was 1 of 15 true and redshirt freshmen this season, and senior midfielder Jordan Bishop said they surprised the upperclassmen right from training camp and preseason.

“They came in and owned it. They looked for the upperclassmen and expected a lot from us, but we had high expectations from them and they just blew us away this year,” Bishop said. “They’ve proved a lot of themselves.”

This season, the Cyclones scored 16 goals in Big 12 conference play, a large improvement from last year’s six, and of the 16 goals, all were scored by freshmen.

Freshmen Emily Goldstein, Brittany Morgan, Theresa Kucera, Caitlin Graboski and Jennifer Dominguez were the top five scorers this season, with Goldstein leading the team with 17 points.

Goldstein’s season point tally was the highest of a true freshman since 2002, and Goldstein took home Big 12 Newcomer of the Week and Offensive Player of the Week honors this season as well as being named to the Big 12 All-Newcomer team, and she said playing with so many freshmen helped her do so.

“It was good because we all were coming with no experience in D-I soccer, and we were all really nervous and used each other a lot to pick ourselves up. We really relied on each other a lot because we were coming from the same place and dealing with the same problems, and I feel like that really helped me,” Goldstein said.

With so many freshmen, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it took a year or so for everyone to bind together and become close as a team, but with only six home games out of their 20-game season, Jobe said it helped bind the team together right away.

“There was enough where there was always a freshman and an upperclassman, so I think it really bonded the team. When you’re stuck with someone for a whole weekend, it brings you two together,” Jobe said.

One of the toughest parts of this season for the Cyclones was their seven-game conference losing streak, which spanned from Oct. 1 against Oklahoma, to Oct. 22 against Texas Tech, with close overtime losses to Texas A&M and Texas Tech as well as a last-minute loss to Oklahoma State.

“We were in those games. The ball bounces a different way for us versus for them, then it’s a different outcome,” Dillinger said. “Our record very easily could have been 6-4 or 7-3 versus 3-7, so other than the Nebraska game, we were pretty competitive in every game.”

Dillinger said one of the reasons for the mid-season skid was the little things.

The Cyclones also lost a close game to Colorado in which the Cyclones scored first, but Graboski was out because of a red card from the game before, and freshman Jessica Stewart and junior Emily Hejlik got injured in the first 30 minutes, which allowed Colorado to score twice on the Cyclone back line in the last 10 minutes for the win.

Bishop and Costanzo were the only two seniors for the Cyclones this season, and Bishop said this team showed dedication she hasn’t seen before in years past.

“I think it’s total dedication on and off the field. They’ve worked hard day-in and day-out, and there hasn’t been a person that’s complained, and everyone knows what’s expected of them.”

The end of the season is when the Cyclones finally got back on the winning track, shutting out Baylor and Missouri back-to-back with the season highlight being the 5-0 win over Missouri on senior night, the largest conference win in school history.

“We had some good moments in other games and our OSU and A&M games where we’re really close [and] we’re in the game against top 10 teams in the nation, but then just not being able to finish that last part of it, so we lose. But this game just showed what we are definitely capable of on the offensive and defensive side of the field,” Bishop said.

The big win will be a huge momentum boost going into the offseason and next season as well as the Cyclones’ young team progresses, and Dillinger said the coaching staff never doubted that the young team could do so well, but now the players realize that.

“We’ve believed in this group the whole time, but now I think they can believe in themselves and each other at a very high level,” Dillinger said. “They have to look at that and say we need to be in San Antonio next year, [and] I think that’s definitely going to give them the motivation and the drive, and now they believe they can do it.”

With a season full of surprises, Dillinger said one good surprise that stands out in her mind is a veteran player who was a utility man for the Cyclones over her career.

“I guess the surprise would be that Jordan Bishop is a great player; I’m surprised at how quickly and how well she adapted to playing in the back, which is a great thing, [and] I think she did an incredible job for us back there,” Dillinger said.

Bishop was moved to the back line from her usual attack position after the injuries suffered by the Cyclone defense against Colorado and played there for the rest of the season.

Juniors Mary Kate McLaughlin and Emily Hejlik were co-captains this season, along with Bishop, and McLaughlin and Hejlik were the backbone of the Cyclone defense. That veteran support combined with the experience gained by this year’s freshman class could be just what the Cyclones need to get to San Antonio next year for the Big 12 tournament.

Iowa State finished ninth in the Big 12 this season with a 3-7 conference record, 8-10-2 overall, one more conference win than last season.