Four months and six days after the preseason ended, the Cyclones begin the regular season this weekend at the Bradley Invitational.

During the tournament, the Cyclones will face Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Western Illinois on Saturday, followed by Wright State and Bradley on Sunday.

With such a long layoff, the team is anxious to get back onto the field.

“It feels like I haven’t played forever, which I haven’t,” junior second baseman Amanda Bradberry said. “I’m ready to play ball.”

But the team is not just excited to be playing again, it is looking forward to seeing what the team can do this season.

“I’m just really excited because I’m expecting a lot,” junior first baseman Sydni Jones said.

“I think everyone is, just because there are so many returners, and we do expect a lot out of our freshmen. So this is going to be a really good tournament to get adjusted and to get used to the traveling, and get our freshmen initiated into the system, and it’s going to be fun.”

Since the Peoria, Ill., ground is covered in snow, the Cyclones will have to have their fun indoors at the Dragon Dome.

“I have not [played a game indoors] so this is going to be a completely new experience for me, but I’m pretty excited about it,” said freshman pitcher and first baseman Katie Harms.

Playing indoors is different from playing outdoors, especially for the defense. The ball bounces differently on turf than it does on dirt and the adjustment can be tricky.

“Since we practice everyday [indoors] it’s not going to be that big of a deal, and then last year we played indoors at North Dakota State so we are used to it,” Jones said.

In fact, the Cyclones are looking forward to playing indoors rather than jumping straight outside after practicing indoors during the winter.

“It’s so nice to be able to play on turf for the first week,” Bradberry said. “And a lot of people think that that’s silly and stuff like that, but to be able to play on where you practice and just change that one element of true competition and then next weekend from true competition to the dirt. It’s just nice to make those two steps rather then just one jump.”

All around, Iowa State sees its season opening tournament as a good way to ease into competition.

“It’s not really far to go, you don’t have to fly, it’s just a bus trip, you’re not missing any classes,” Bradberry said. “It’s just a good way to start the season.”

Even the level of competition seems to be to the Cyclones liking as they begin season.

“You’re not going out there and playing A&M right away,” sophomore pitcher Rachel Zabriskie said. “You know, that’s not a great warm-up, that’s the team you want to play in the middle of your season, in the heat of it. But we are playing good competition, I mean, it’s the best competition we have seen since the fall. We haven’t seen anything but ourselves, so anything will be nice.”