Few things please a coach more than seeing their players reap the fruits of their labor.

Ask Rebecca Hornbacher about last Sunday, and she’ll say something more special than just a soccer game took place.

On the dreary, rainy afternoon, the four seniors of the ISU women’s soccer team were recognized before their final game in Ames, both by their red numbers painted on the sidelines and in the pregame readings outlining their accomplishments.

Three of those player’s accomplishments were more pronounced.

For much of the season, Amy Flores has led the team and the Big 12 in goals.

Kristina Baumann has been one of the Cyclones’ offensive leaders for the past three seasons, was named team MVP as a freshman and has overcome injuries throughout the spring and fall of this year.

Defender Deb Benakis has started all 75 games of her collegiate career.

But the fourth senior’s efforts, to an outsider, were less apparent. But they were not overlooked by both her teammates and coaches.

So when Leslie Hansell scored the deciding goal in one of the biggest games of the year, the Cyclones didn’t let it go to waste.

“She has shown her dedication and commitment for the past four years, and she goes in and starts the game,” Hornbacher said, who began as interim head coach Hansell’s freshman season and was promoted to full-time soon after.

“Of course she was very excited with nervous energy wanting to make a difference,” Hornbacher said. “Then she goes out and scores the game-winning goal.”

Hansell’s goal put the Cyclones ahead, 1-0, 12 minutes into the game. Iowa State went on to shut out Oklahoma – one of the best teams in the Big 12 – to secure a berth in the Big 12 tournament.

Although the win was the focus of the day, it was easy to see how Hornbacher and the team could have gotten caught up in just one goal.

Baumann called it “perfect,” and, before the game, the fourth-year forward had actually prophesized to Hansell what would take place later that afternoon.

“Before the game, I said to her, ‘I am going to assist your goal. We are going to score,'” Baumann said. “And it happened and it was amazing. She needed that.”

When Baumann got the ball, she dribbled to the end line on the right side of the field and popped a perfect pass to a waiting Hansell.

The former four-year prep star from Ankeny was ready, heading the ball from the left of the box past the Sooner goalkeeper and into the right side of the net.

“It was a perfect ball from Baumann,” Hansell said. “She won it and put it right where it needed to be.”

The fact that she made the goal wasn’t the surprising part – it was fact the she finally made it back to the field.

Hansell showed her dedication to the ISU soccer program in an unusual way, capping her career with a remarkable comeback.

After playing in 18 of 19 games her freshman season, Hansell questioned whether she should play soccer anymore. Reconsidering, she decided she missed being a part of the team.

After talking to Hornbacher during the spring of her sophomore year, Hansell thought her best choice would be to serve as a student manager.

After being out of the action for two seasons, Hansell wanted back in the game and started training to be competitive again.

But an injury almost doomed her decision.

“She even came back from a very bad stress fracture in her foot this summer and almost wasn’t going to play, and didn’t know if I wanted her to come back to the team,” Hornbacher said. “She actually gave me a call and was very upset. She said she had been training really hard and had been doing a ton of work over the summer and had a stress fracture, and she wasn’t even released to play until six weeks into the season.

“She didn’t get a lot of playing time this year because her level of fitness just wasn’t there after coming back,” Hornbacher said. “But she worked hard and knew her role on the team. For her to come in and score off the bench, in the first 10 minutes, was just amazing. The team was absolutely thrilled.”

The stress fracture prevented Hansell from putting weight on the ankle and before Sunday, she had played in only one game this season.

But scoring on Senior Day helped validate the whole process.

“You rally around your seniors, but wow, that was really special,” Hornbacher said.

With at least two games left in the season and maybe many more, depending how deep into the postseason the Cyclones go, Hansell didn’t want to conclude her story with just one goal.

“What way to end it, at home at least,” she said.