The ISU softball team hopes to take the first step to another historic season this weekend in Starkville, Miss., at the Bulldog Round Robin.

The Cyclones will face host Mississippi State, Kennesaw State and Purdue. Before their home opener with intrastate rival Northern Iowa on March 28, the Cyclones will have already played 39 games.

ISU coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler said playing that many games away from home to start the season comes with the territory.

“Anybody that plays in the north, that is just the way it goes,” she said. “I definitely think that it’s hard, but that is just part of being a student-athlete and a softball player that plays in the north.”

Iowa State opens Big 12 home play the last weekend in March with a series with Oklahoma State. The Cyclones will also host Texas Tech, Baylor, Nebraska and Kansas in Big 12 play, and they will make a trip to Iowa City on April 3 to face the Hawkeyes in the annual Cy-Hawk Series.

After a season in which they equaled their highest win total since 1999, the Cyclones return several players and also brought in a large recruiting class.

Gemeinhardt-Cesler said the combination of those two factors should bring more improvement.

“We have 10 newcomers that will help us tremendously,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “With the experience that our seniors bring, that will bring even more success.”

The Cyclones went 23-28 overall and 5-13 in the Big 12 in 2006. The five conference wins included victories over No. 15 Texas A&M, No. 16 Nebraska, and No. 22 Oklahoma in consecutive series.

Those three schools along with Baylor are the favorites for the Big 12 regular season championship, according to Gemeinhardt-Cesler, and the Cyclones are picked to finish last.

Senior Jennifer Bigbee, a returning all-Big 12 second baseman, said the team is looking to get better in several aspects and finish higher than that.

“We are just looking to get better at our consistency and going hard for seven innings,” Bigbee said. “We really want to finish at least in the top half of the conference.”

The Cyclones return one other all-Big 12 performer from last year in senior catcher Ashley Killeen. Killeen set the school record for runs batted in with 40 and led the team with a .336 batting average.

Killeen said she would like to be selected all-conference again this season.

“I just want do as much as I can to help the team win,” Killeen said.