Friday night marks the first official home game for the ISU soccer team (5-1-2), and they are more than ready to pull their weight in the Cy-Hawk series hosting the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The Hawkeyes (6-1-0) are riding a six-game win streak coming into Friday’s match, and one of their wins came against a Loyola-Chicago team that beat the Cyclones last weekend. Iowa State will have to overcome Iowa’s high-scoring offense, which has notched 17 goals already this season, well ahead of Iowa State’s 1.12 goal per game average.

“Defensively, we need the high pressure,” said coach Wendy Dillinger. “We basically need to shut down their ability to find their forwards’ feet and then play backwards to the midfield. That’s what they look to do so that’s what we have to do to shut that down.”

Junior defender and co-captain Mary Kate McLaughlin has played a huge role for the Cyclones back line this season, and plans to use what she learned from their 0-2 loss to Iowa last year to help the team this time around.

“We didn’t pressure as well as we should have last year, so we’re working on high pressure,” McLaughlin said.

Iowa has several offensive weapons who could cause the Cyclones some headache, but McLaughlin said training with some of them this summer gave the team a bit of an idea who they were.

One of the Hawkeyes Iowa State plans to pressure heavily is junior midfielder Morgan Showalter.

“Morgan Showalter obviously is a very talented player on their side. If we can try to limit her touches on the ball, that’s going to shut down their playmaking ability a bit,” Dillinger said.

Iowa’s senior forward Keli McLaughlin challenged the Cyclones a lot last year as well, but Dillinger has a plan of attack that should keep her out of the net.

“We cannot let her get behind us. She is incredibly fast, she’s dynamic, and if we give her any room at all behind us, she’s dangerous,” Dillinger said.

Sense of urgency and getting early goals have been something the Cyclones have somewhat struggled with this season, not being able to push across goals against Drake, North Dakota State and last weekend against Loyola-Chicago, but it is something they continue to work on and hope for some payoff against Iowa.

“We’re always working on the first few minutes of the game, getting a goal in the back of the net, high pressure, and really consistent urgency,” McLaughlin said.

The out-of-state freshmen got a glimpse of the importance of the Cy-Hawk rivalry last weekend, and hope to make this weekend a little less victorious for the Hawkeyes.

“I’m really excited because of all the talk people do about Iowa and Iowa State and the football game pumped us all up, I think because we just want to get back at them somehow,” said freshman midfielder Erin Green.

Green has started all eight games for the Cyclones, and scored the lone goal against Montana on Aug. 27 for the 1-0 win.

Friday will be the Cyclones’ last home game until they start Big 12 play Sept. 26 against Kansas, and the they hope a win against Iowa can prepare them well for the Big 12 season.

“For us, we look at every game equally and we want to work equally as hard,” McLaughlin said. “Iowa is a very good team being a part of the Big 10, and that will definitely prepare us for our Big 12 games as well.”

Freshman keeper Maddie Jobe, will start her sixth consecutive game in net Friday, as fellow goalie senior Ashley Costanzo is still recovering from the injury suffered Aug. 27 against Montana.

The Cyclones will have a week off to recuperate from the Cy-Hawk showdown under the lights. Iowa State gets back to action Sept. 24 against South Dakota State on the road.