The Cyclone soccer team is trailblazing west Wednesday, unbeaten. 

After a tie against Drake and their first win of the season at Northern Iowa, the women’s soccer team is heading up north for the University of Montana Tournament in Missoula, Mont., to take on Montana (0-1-1) and Nevada (0-1-1). Both teams are going into the weekend winless, but the Cyclones (1-0-1) are still treating the game like any other. It’s still early. 

The struggle of putting goals in the net plagued Iowa State in its first game against Drake. Fortunately, the Cyclones found their groove against Northern Iowa and hope to keep that going.

“In the first weekend we did a pretty good job possessing the ball and moving the ball, and the thing that has been lacking is the urgency to score; something that we finally got our hands around after UNI tied the game on the PK. The urgency definitely picked up,” said coach Wendy Dillinger.

 They emphasized that urgency in training Tuesday and Wednesday as well, Dillinger said.

As for the game plan for Montana and Nevada: “Score early and score often,” Dillinger said with a smile.

The Montana Grizzlies have dangerous outside midfielders who can both be difference makers if not accounted for.

“If we let them get behind our back line, they’ll give us troubles,” Dillinger said. “That’s the main focus defensively, to keep those two kids from getting involved.”

Montana also has 14 freshmen on their roster, a similarity Iowa State won’t share with too many opponents this season.

Nevada is on the back burner for now for the Cyclones as they won’t play them until Sunday, but they will take a look at them once the game gets closer. Even though Nevada doesn’t have a win yet either, it has kept both games close with a 0-0 tie to Chico State in an exhibition game and a 0-1 loss to St. Mary’s.

This tournament marks the start of a six-game road stint spanning the next three weekends in which Iowa State will play Montana and Nevada in Montana; Creighton and North Dakota State in Nebraska; and finally Loyola-Chicago and Illinois State in neighboring Illinois.

One might think such a long span of away games could be detrimental to a team, especially because of the youth up and down the roster. However, all the field-jumping the team has done practicing in Ankeny, at Ames High School and Iowa State’s Bergstrom Indoor Facility should make it easier to deal with.

In addition, the club schedules for the Cyclone freshmen prior to the start of this season could make for an easier transition, Dillinger said.

“The way the club season is lined up for them at the youth level, they are traveling every other weekend anyway for three or four days and playing in different tournaments, different areas and different teams. It’s never the same thing, so I think they’ll be fine,” Dillinger said.

Iowa State’s kickoff times are 7 p.m. for Friday’s Montana game, and noon for Sunday’s game against Nevada.