With the Upper Midwest Lacrosse League Division A tournament only a weekend away, the ISU Men’s Lacrosse Club needed a win for a major confidence booster – and they received it by beating intrastate rival Iowa on Saturday in nonconference play, 12-6.

“It was a great win and we definitely worked together to pull it off,” said midfielder Dan Zimmerman.

It was Iowa (2-6) who took the early lead, however, as they scored two unanswered goals with long passes down the field for easy scores.

“They got us kind of unexpected at first,” said captain Jacob Oakland. “We definitely didn’t think they were going to come out that strong.”

The Cyclones (3-8, 2-5) answered back, however, and went into halftime leading Iowa, 5-4.

“At halftime we knew we had to step it up,” Oakland said. “We knew we had to come out second half and play our game if we wanted to win.”

The Cyclones came out with renewed vigor in the second half, executing clean passes and controlling most of the ground ball pickups. With a face-off win to start the second half, Jesse Nagan scored one of the many goals to follow, starting the rally against the Hawkeyes.

“The second half we had amazing teamwork and were really able to put the ball in the net with our passes,” Oakland said.

Not only was the offense able to pick it up for the win, but the Cyclone defense was able to shut down Iowa’s attacks around the crease and down on the defensive end.

“We were really able to put pressure on them today and shut down their offense,” said defender Mike Pokorney. “It helped us get the win for sure.”

With the postseason tournament next weekend, Saturday’s win bolsters the Cyclones high hopes for upcoming wins.

“This win was a huge confidence booster for us, especially heading into the tournament next weekend,” Oakland said. “Hopefully we will be able to carry the way we played today over to next weekend.”