Coach Wendy Dillinger’s message to her team the past few weeks has been simple: shoot, shoot, shoot.

The Cyclones return home Friday night on a four-game scoring drought. Part of the reason for this is the team’s play inside the 18-yard line.

“We’re just not generating enough shots from our forwards,” Dillinger said. “I think Mary Kate [McLaughlin] had the most shots against Colorado from the centerback spot. We need our forwards to pull the trigger in front of the net.”

The Cyclones’ lack of productivity in the box has come from fear of missing the shot on goal when given the opportunity.

“We’re just not taking chances,” junior midfielder Jordan Wagner said. “We’re around the box and it’s not our first, initial thought. I think we keep looking to play back when we need to get numbers forward.”

Part of this problem is that Iowa State is looking too hard for the right time to score, which affects the team’s timing.

“I think a lot of us are looking for the ‘perfect’ shot, and we want to be sure we’re going to score it,” sophomore midfielder Laura Wooster said.

The Cyclones’ next opponent, the Cowgirls of Oklahoma State, come in at 8-4-0 and are the defending regular season Big 12 Champions.

“They’re solid,” Dillinger said. “They’re a very, very good team. They have a lot of purpose in what they do. Last year was a clinic. It’s going to be a challenge for our team, but I think it’s one that we’re looking forward to.”

The Cowgirls sent Iowa State home with a 7-0 nightmare loss in Stillwater last season, an experience Wagner and Wooster described as “complete frustration.”

“We were getting completely passed around and it seemed like they were running circles around us,” Wagner said.

Wooster noted that their defensive strategy needs to change to have a better result this time around.

“It was a lot of chasing,” Wooster said. “That’s what were looking not to do, is to chase. It was a lot of individual defending when it needs to be more of a team effort.”

The Cyclones are looking to counter Oklahoma State’s aggressiveness by putting on their own dose of defensive pressure. If the Cyclones can put enough pressure on the Cowgirls, Iowa State is hoping that it will disrupt their speed of play and make it harder for them to do what they like to do.

Iowa State’s opponents have scored only when senior goalkeeper Ann Gleason is left isolated against an attacking defender.

The Cyclones are looking to cut back on defensive breakdowns that provide their opponents with those opportunities.

This is, in large part, what led to a 2-0 loss to Texas Tech a week ago in Lubbock, Tex.

“Both those goals were one-v-one against the keeper, and they took advantage of it. You have to give them credit for taking advantage, but those are mistakes that we can’t make in this conference,” Dillinger said.

Despite the lack of goals on the scoreboard recently, the team does feel as if it is making progress.

“We’re working on getting more people up as a unit as opposed to just one girl running by herself, and we’re really improving on that,” Wooster said. “We’re attacking from behind; Mary Kate does a good job of bringing the ball up and distributing it. Those are things that we weren’t doing at the beginning of the season and we’re doing them now.”

Dillinger is seeing the players improve through their effort in training and in games.

“They are working very hard and giving it their all,” Dillinger said. “We just need to make some better decisions at times in the attacking part of the field.”