The ISU Lacrosse Club has a big weekend ahead as it travels to Minnesota on Friday for its final three conference games, including a showdown against No. 1 University of Minnesota at Duluth.

The team, which has a roster of 34 players, plays in Division A of the Upper Midwest Lacrosse League. The team began its 11th season of conference play this year on March 3, winning a 16-10 game against the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Since then, the Cyclones have dropped three-straight conference games and have an overall record of 4-5 this season.

Last weekend, the club hosted several teams from around the Midwest. Iowa State lost to Minnesota and Western Michigan on Saturday and closed the weekend Sunday with a tough 11-10 loss to St. Olaf.

Co-captain Jake Oakland said the team has been playing hard, but has struggled with injuries.

“We started off much stronger, but we dropped three games this weekend because we’ve been hit really hard with injuries,” said Oakland, junior in industrial engineering.

The club, which has a conference record of 1-3, is currently in seventh place out of the nine teams in the conference.

Although the club started slowly in the conference, co-captain Joe Dilling is confident the club can enter postseason play with some momentum.

“It’s a really young team so it takes a lot of patience. I think right now its sort of a rebuilding process,” said Dilling, senior in civil engineering. “I really think that we can put two or three games together and get up to maybe a third or fourth place finish in the conference this year.”

Oakland said the club has been playing well defensively and is getting great goalkeeping out of sophomore Tommy Johnson and freshman David Garske, who are ranked first and second in the conference, respectively, in save percentage.

“Our defense has been real good. We’ve been able to hold people to fewer goals, and we have excellent goalkeepers,” Oakland said.

In preparation for this weekend’s matchup against conference leader Minnesota-Duluth, Oakland said the club will work on what he views as the team’s only weak point: offensive execution.

“We have trouble finishing, so that’s something that we’re going to be working on to prepare for our final league tournament,” Oakland said. “We will be working on finishing on offense because [Minnesota-Duluth] will put up a lot of goals. We’re definitely working on [scoring] enough goals to stick with them and hopefully beat them.”

Dilling said he is confident that given the hard work the team has put into the season, the game against Minnesota-Duluth can turn into a Cyclone victory.

“We play hard and that makes a huge difference and makes up for our lack of skill and teamwork in some areas,” he said. “We’ve definitely shown the ability to play with really good teams.”

With a strong showing this weekend, the club can compete for as high as a third seed in the postseason tournament, which will be held at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn., from April 28 to 30.

For more information on Cyclone lacrosse, visit the team Web site at www.stuorg.iastate.edu/lacrosse. Its schedule is available at www.umll.org.