Coach Bill Fennelly had to give his team a wake up call at half time of the Cyclones’ 61-40 victory over Wartburg, which they trailed 29-25 at halftime. 

Fennelly and his staff know an opening half like the one they had against Wartburg can’t happen anymore if the Cyclones want to be successful. They will open the regular season Saturday against Western Illinois.

“We need to work on coming prepared,” said senior Kelsey Bolte. “We didn’t come out ready to play against Wartburg and I think that’s one of the things we really need to work on.”

Communication is going to be important as the Cyclones struggled with that in their final exhibition matchup. The noise level in Hilton Coliseum is likely going to be higher for the season opener. 

On the court, junior point guard Lauren Mansfield and Bolte have a system for communicating with the rest of the players.

“I think the key thing for us is repeating the play call,” Mansfield said. “I call out a play and then [Bolte] repeats it to the rest of the team what I’m calling out. That definitely helps, but I think we need to work on just being louder and communicating with each other in that way.”

Despite this being Mansfield’s first-ever regular season start for Iowa State, she does have an advantage that she hasn’t had before. 

The coaching staff provides the players with detailed scouting reports on each team and goes in depth on the key players at each position. Mansfield has had scouting reports before, but not to the detail that she will receive for Western Illinois and the rest of the opponents this season.

“It’s a very important part of what we do,” Fennelly said. “We go into every game with a very different game plan and to our kids’ credit, they handle that and they understand that. I think a huge part of the team’s success last year was our ability to adjust game to game against who we’re playing.”

Western Illinois went 1-1 in its two exhibition games against Lindenwood-Belleville and Truman State. The Leathernecks routed Lindenwood-Belleville before dropping the second game to Truman State 61-54.

Leatherneck guard Sadie Webb scored 19 points in her 19 minutes of action against Lindenwood-Belleville in the 80-20 victory on 7-13 shooting. In the loss to Truman State, she scored 12 points and grabbed four boards. 

She looks to be one of the Leathernecks top players to start the season.

“You’re being much more specific about who you’re playing,” Fennelly said. “The first couple games are hard; especially the first game because you don’t have video and Western Illinois is playing a couple new players. The best players in their exhibition games were kids that weren’t even on the roster last year.”

Mansfield is the first non-returning point guard to start a Cyclones’ season opener since the 1997 season when they went 25-8 overall and 12-4 in Big 12 play.

Mansfield admits she is nervous, but the two exhibition contests helped get her a feel for the Hilton Coliseum environment

“It was definitely good to be able to play and adapt to the atmosphere,” Mansfield said. “I feel like I’m going to be more comfortable at Hilton. It’s just exciting now that it’s the real thing.”