The ISU softball team is preparing for another eventful spring break.

The Cyclones will play nine games over the break, including five this weekend at the San Diego Classic. At the classic, Iowa State will play No. 25 Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, New Mexico State, San Diego and No. 23 San Diego State.

After their trip to California, the Cyclones will return to the Midwest to play Creighton on Tuesday and then kick off the Big XII season at No. 14 Baylor next Friday and Saturday.

“I know that the whole team is really excited – it’s going to be a pretty big tournament, ” sophomore outfielder Michelle Dettmer said. “I think, mainly, we just feel ready to beat these teams. We have been beating really good teams lately. Obviously, playing in the sun is going to be fun too, but just testing ourselves – it’s going to be 10 days in a row, basically just playing games, so it will be a good measuring stick to see where we are at.”

This test will come against some good competition.

“This tournament has some really, quality teams in it – all California teams – so they will have some really good players,” assistant coach Gary Hines said. “Long Beach State is playing well; San Diego State is playing well, so it will be a good test. It will kind of show us what we will be up against in the Big XII.”

The Cyclones may be going into this tournament a little cold, however. They haven’t practiced since Wednesday and won’t until their first game against Long Beach State on Friday.

“We need to keep ourselves on task and treat warm-ups like practice, since we will be out of practice for a while – that should keep our skills up,” sophomore infielder Courtney Wray said.

Hines, however, is not as worried about the results as he is about how the team plays during this stretch.

“I want to see us play hard and that we are making adjustments when we have to, and we are staying in ball games and giving ourselves opportunities – that’s all you can ask for,” Hines said.

Although winning may not be the most important thing, the team seems to expect to do their share of it.

“I expect a lot of winning,” Dettmer said. “I really do expect to beat the teams that we are going to play. I think every time this team – this year – steps on the field we expect to win, and every time we don’t win we are disappointed. We know that we are able to compete with every team – so not only are we going to go to California, we are, hopefully, going to come home with a lot of wins.”

If the Cyclones can get those wins, it will make for a more enjoyable spring break than in years past.

“Spring break should be fun. Last year it wasn’t as much fun because we weren’t winning – so this year, hopefully, we should be able to have fun and win,” Wray said.