While students begin to scatvter from Ames this weekend, the ISU women’s basketball team will prepare for its first road test of the season. 

The trip may be the first for five newcomers on the roster, but it likely won’t prove to be too daunting, as the team only has to travel 40 miles down I-35 to Des Moines on Sunday for a date with in-state rival Drake (1-1).

A limited number of Cyclones will be active on the trip, only three of which have experience with playing at the Knapp Center on the Drake campus. With Amanda Zimmerman, Genesis Lightbourne, and Anna Florzak currently injured, there will be only nine Cyclones in uniform on Sunday, only two of which are post players, and both are freshman.

“It’s something that’s new and we’re still working on, but I was happy with how we played on Sunday with limited post play,” said senior guard Alison Lacey. “The two post players we have available now are doing great when they’re in. We’re still trying to figure what to do when then we have four or five guards in the game, but I think we’re fine.”

Iowa State also only had nine players dress in their season opener against Florida Atlantic, but handled the experience with relative ease in an 80-40 beat down of the Owls. While an in-state rival will produce a much different and more competitive challenge for the Cyclones, the team is still confident a their lineup that will be small in both quantity and height.

“I thought we played very well in our first game,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “Certainly the competition will get much more difficult as the season goes on, but overall I thought our players did a lot of good things that you want from the first game in the season, especially when starting nine players and having all nine contribute.”

This will be the first step for Iowa State in hopes of winning Iowa’s mythical state championship, a competition for supremacy amongst the state’s four Division I schools. While it may not be conference play and it never a subject of much attention outside of Iowa, the team still takes pride in comparing itself to the rest of the in-state competition.

“I think it’s something to be very proud of,” Fennelly said. “I think three or four years in a row we didn’t lose a game to an in-state team, and believe me, we talked about it and bragged about it. I know our fans our proud of it and our school is proud of it and it’s very important to us.”

Drake leads the all-time series 25-23, but the Cyclones have won the last five matchups by an average of 13.8 points per game, including a 65-52 win at Hilton Coliseum last year.

The Bulldogs are coming off of an 82-60 home win against Chicago State after dropping their season opener on the road to UMKC, 70-68. Preseason All-Missouri Valley guard Jordan Plummer averaged 20.5 points and 6.5 rebounds for Drake in those games.

After a tropical Thanksgiving experience last season during a tournament in Waikiki, Hawaii, the Cyclones will be having their turkey dinner in the Windy City this year, as they will head east for the Northwestern Tournament in Chicago. 

The Cyclones will face Penn to kick off the tournament at 3 pm the Friday after Thanksgiving, and will follow with a 2pm matchup the following day against the College of Charleston. The team will return home after break to face Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday, Dec 1.