Fresh off their first Big 12 victory on Friday, the Cyclones played host to Northern Iowa on Sunday.

The Panthers came in looking to avoid their fifth straight loss of the season.

Iowa State took a 12–5 shot advantage into the locker room at half time to go along with the 0–0 deadlock. Six of the Cyclones’ shots were on goal. Freshman forward Amanda Cacciatore led the team with two shots on goal at the end of the half.

The Cyclones continued to put constant pressure on the Panthers in the second half, but the score was still 0–0 at the end of regulation despite Iowa State’s 21–5 shots advantage.

With 19 seconds left in the first overtime period, freshman midfielder Amanda Woelfel soared a free kick into the box, and sophomore defender Mary Kate McLaughlin put her 5’10 frame to use as she rose up and headed the ball past the keeper to secure the 1–0 Cyclones victory.

McLaughlin credits the goal, her second of the weekend, to having good on-field chemistry with her teammates.

“It’s pretty much knowing where Amanda (Woelfel) is going to hit it,” McLaughlin said. “She’s very very consistent and she hits a great ball.”

The Cyclones had been working on improving set pieces in training this past week, Woelfel and McLaughlin have been a big part of that improvement.

“She [McLaughlin] is the go-to person on free kicks. She did her job,” coach Wendy Dillinger said. “Woelfel strikes the ball very well. She’s accurate, consistent and she has power. She can also finesse the ball and put it right where she wants it.”

The Cyclones had been on a four-game losing streak before this weekend and going 2–0 this weekend provided a confidence boost for the team.

“It was really good. We needed to get our confidence up,” Woefel said. “On our away streak, we weren’t doing so good so to win against Oklahoma State was really big.”

Dillinger gave credit to the defense for only allowing Northern Iowa to get five shots on them, but felt that they turned the ball over too much and tried to dribble the ball when it would have been better to pass.

There are other weaknesses that the Panthers, who now stand at 2–8–2, were able to expose.

Despite the wide disparity in shots, the Cyclones had chances to get more points on the board than they came away with. Dillinger had been addressing her team in recent weeks about capitalizing on chances near the goal and that the game against Northern Iowa showed they still need to convert on more of their chances.

“We have to finish our chances,” Dillinger said. “We had some good opportunities in both halves and we just didn’t put the ball away. You know, one-v-the keeper from ten yards out, we have to finish those.”

Iowa State surpassed its win total from last season, improving its record to 6–3–4.