The ISU softball team went 3-2 in the Hillenbrand Invitational this weekend in Arizona, with both losses coming at the hands of ranked teams, defending national champion No. 8 Arizona and No. 24 Virginia Tech. Even though the Cyclones dropped both games to their first ranked opponents of the season, they walked away with confidence, knowing they’d played two of the nation’s best teams in close, hard-fought battles.

“I thought they competed well and hung in,” head coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “I wish we could have pulled out the Virginia Tech game, but we went 3-2 over the weekend and we can’t argue with that.”

The Cyclones lost, 7-1, to Arizona on Friday and 2-1 to Virginia Tech on Saturday.

“We didn’t play like we were intimidated,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “We really got after it, and I was proud of that.”

Cyclone batters faced some of the toughest pitching in the country, including two USA Softball Player of the Year candidates, managing only five-run games against Arizona, Virginia Tech and South Florida. Despite the low output, Gemeinhardt-Cesler was pleased with the amount of contact they made at the plate.

“They did a great job putting the ball in play, which is all we want,” she said. “We faced some tough pitchers, and I was happy with how they handled it.”

ISU pitchers continued their early-season dominance, giving up only eight earned runs in the five games – and seven were given to Arizona.

“Our pitching staff did a phenomenal job all weekend – even against Virginia Tech and Arizona, they kept us in the game,” she said.

Iowa State will be back in action Friday when the team travels to Wichita, Kan., to play in the Shocker Invitational. The Cyclones were scheduled to play two games each against Wichita State (11-7), Missouri-Kansas City (1-6) and South Dakota State (4-9) starting Thursday against UMKC, but that game has been canceled due to poor field conditions. Iowa State will begin play on Friday against South Dakota State.

Wichita State poses the biggest threat to the Cyclones, as they have already upset two top-25 teams – previously No. 22 ranked Texas and current No. 24 Washington. They are led by Britnee Barnett, who has earned first team all-Missouri Valley Conference honors at shortstop three years in a row. Last season, she set a new Wichita State record for total bases in a season with 117.

A week after showing resilience against Arizona and Virginia Tech, coach Gemeinhardt-Cesler hopes that her team shows no drop in intensity going from playing ranked teams to playing smaller schools.

“We’ve talked about it all week, you know, not letting up on now that we’re playing a couple of teams that aren’t as prominent as the ranked ones we played,” she said. “We’ve spoken about being ready to play no matter who you are playing, and to keep improving, we need to keep that in mind.”