Cyclones aim to end season on winning note

Midfielder Jordan Bishop maneuvers the ball on Sunday, Oct. 17 at the ISU Soccer Complex.

Photo:David Derong/Iowa State Daily

Midfielder Jordan Bishop maneuvers the ball on Sunday, Oct. 17 at the ISU Soccer Complex.

Cory Weaver

After snapping their seven game losing streak Sunday, the Cyclones hope to end their season on a positive note Friday against Missouri.

Unfortunately for the Cyclones, Colorado came back to beat Kansas in overtime Monday, eliminating Iowa State from the possibility of getting a Big 12 tournament bid. The Cyclones will still work to bring regular season intensity.

“It’s just an issue of pride. I don’t like losing and I don’t think anyone on the team likes losing because if they did they wouldn’t be playing Division I soccer in college,” said freshman midfielder Emily Goldstein, who leads the team with five goals this season.

“We just need to do this for our seniors and we need to look and not play for ourselves, but play for the team that we have now because this will be our last game together.”

Along with doing it for the seniors, coach Wendy Dillinger said a win will help the team in the future.

“They want to do it for our seniors and I think for our freshman who have been such a big contribution to what we’ve done this year,” Dillinger said.

In the nine conference games Iowa State has played in this season, the only players who have scored for the Cyclones have been freshmen. Six Cyclone rookies have tallied goals in Big 12 play.

Last weekend, the Cyclones were able to produce some scoring opportunities in the box, and despite the loss Friday, Goldstein said they plan to continue that in their last game of the season.

“We just need to keep up the intensity, and we are better than any team we come up against and we just need to remember that in the box because we just need to make sure we finish our chances when we get them and play the way that we know we can,” Goldstein said.

Also on the offensive end, Iowa State could have plenty of chances to score as Missouri has allowed 35 goals this season.

“You need to shoot, shoot, shoot and when you shoot, you need someone to follow the goal in case the goalie drops it,” said freshman midfielder Theresa Kucera.

On the other end, senior co-captain Jordan Bishop said Missouri’s inability to keep opponents from scoring could allow the defense to play more aggressively.

“We’ll watch film and we’ll see the kind of style and how we can counter with three front runners but I feel like we’ll play positive, we’ll show up with more confidence,” Bishop said. “It’s our last game, it’s a Friday night, we always play well here, so we’ll definitely be a more confident attacking style.”

Bishop is one of two seniors on the team, the other being keeper Ashley Costanzo, who has been sidelined due to injuries. Bishop is excited about her final game in cardinal and gold.

“We have nothing to lose so at this point in the season it will be amazing to have that feeling of winning, if it comes to it on Friday, and ending my career on a winning note,” Bishop said.

This week in practice, Kucera said working on offense would be the main focus.

“Every week we focus on something and the past couple weeks it’s been offense and shooting so maybe they’ll continue with that,” Kucera said.

Missouri comes into the game 5-4 in the conference and has already clinched a spot in the Big 12 tournament, but Dillinger said the offense they play leaves them vulnerable on the counter attack, and that’s why they have allowed so many goals this season.

“The one thing is the way they do play leaves them exposed to counter attacks which was evident, especially on the Texas Tech-Missouri tape, that they give up a lot of counter attacks so that’s something we are going to look to exploit,” Dillinger said. “Get a defensive stop and just turn around and counter quickly.”

The game is at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the ISU Soccer Complex, and the Cyclones will honor Bishop and Costanzo for Senior Night prior to game time.