The ISU women’s swimming and diving team will try to open the Big 12 conference part of its schedule with a victory when it hosts the Missouri Tigers on Friday at 6 p.m. in Beyer Hall.

The Cyclones (3-1) return home after a dominating 168-122 victory last Friday against St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

In their first meet in over a month, the Cyclones won the first 10 events, taking 13 of 16 overall. Iowa State placed both first and second in nearly half of the events in that meet, along with three sweeps of the top three spots in a race.

The Tigers (1-2-1, 0-2-1 Big 12) are coming off their first victory in a dual meet, in which they dominated their instate rival Missouri State in Springfield, Mo., 196.5-98.5 last Saturday.

Although the Tigers are under .500, they have won one tournament and placed fourth in another.

ISU diving coach Jeff Warrick said Missouri usually brings a good team and the Cyclones would like to keep the success from last week’s meet going.

“It should be a challenging, back-and-forth meet,” Warrick said. “I’m glad that we have the home pool advantage, but it is going to take more than that for us to win, obviously.”

A victory for the Cyclones would be a springboard to a big end of the dual season as well as give them momentum going into the Big 12 Championships.

“When we look back at last year, we are ahead of most of the times and test sets from last year,” said ISU assistant coach Duane Sorenson. “We would like to [be] better at the end of the year than we were at the end of the year last year.”

Iowa State hasn’t beaten Missouri since 1997, when it defeated the Tigers 143-99.

Last year the Cyclones lost on the road to the Tigers in Columbia 188-107.

Iowa State and Missouri do not have any common opponents this season, but did compete in the same meet at the Big 12 Relays, in which the Tigers and Cyclones placed third and sixth, respectively.

“We need to keep up our hard work and keep pushing each other,” said freshman Haley Haynes.

Although Iowa State is just starting its Big 12 schedule and trying to get off to a good start, the Tigers have already had three conference meets, including losses to the Kansas Jayhawks and Texas A&M Aggies and a tie with the Texas Longhorns.

“It would be big to start off the Big 12 season on a high note with a win,” said freshman Kali Fryklund. “I think that it will build momentum for success for us in later meets, and build our confidence for other Big 12 meets and the Big 12 Championships.”

Iowa State will head back on the road for two meets, one a triangular with Northern Colorado and Nebraska-Omaha in Omaha, Neb. on Jan. 27, and another with Nebraska on Jan. 28 in Lincoln.

The Cyclones return home for their final Big 12 meet – the final competition for the seniors – in Beyer Hall against Kansas Feb. 3 and 4.