The Cyclones are coming off two wins against Oklahoma State and Northern Iowa last weekend. It was only the second time they had been able to put together back to back wins this season.

Iowa State will look for their third straight win tonight at 7 p.m. as they take on Oklahoma at the ISU Soccer Complex.

The Sooners boast the second leading-scorer in the Big 12 conference in Whitney Palmer. She has 12 goals and 26 points on the season.

The Cyclones are going to have to make her a focus of their game plan in order to be successful.

“We’re going to try and not let her get the ball as much as possible and not let her get behind us,” coach Wendy Dillinger said. “If we let her get free around our goal, she can really create problems.”

This weekend is an opportunity for the Cyclones to make a statement in the conference that hasn’t had any clear frontrunner this season. Colorado is leading the conference with 12 points with their 4-1 record in Big 12 play, but they are 7-6 overall. Of the eleven Big 12 teams, only four of them have records over .500, where as nine of them have better than .500 records overall.

“There have been some interesting results these past couple weeks,” Dillinger said. “The conference is pretty wide open right now.”

The Sooners come in at 1-3 in conference play and their record is at 6-6-1 overall.

Their opponent Sunday, Baylor, brings traits to the field that are common among Big 12 teams — speed and strength.

“Baylor is pretty physical,” senior forward Amanda Nimtz said. “They will just play you man up. Holding our ground and playing the ball quickly will be the key on Sunday. On Friday, going straight at the defenders of Oklahoma is where I think we will have success.”

Despite the 21-5 shot disparity against Northern Iowa, the team feels there is room for improvement in the penalty area.

The Cyclones had numerous chances on goal that went over the crossbar or wide of the post.

“I think there is always room for improvement on shooting,” freshman Marissa Allen said. “We’ve been continuing to work on that in practice all week so hopefully we can carry it on to the games this weekend.”

Baylor comes in at 1-2-1 in the conference and 5-3-3 overall.