Mary Fox will lead the ISU women’s basketball team to her home state Saturday as the Cyclones take on Cleveland State in their regular-season opener.

“It is so big for me to go back to Cleveland,” Fox said. “I have a huge family back at home who hardly ever gets up here. They are getting a bunch of people to come to the game so there will be a lot of support.”

Fox said she has played against many of the women on the Cleveland State squad before, and the game holds a lot of meaning for her.

“It means a lot to me that Coach [Bill] Fennelly is taking me home to play in front of a home crowd,” she said.

This will be the first match between Iowa State and the Vikings.

“We’re going because of Mary Fox,” Fennelly said. “That’s why the game was scheduled.”

Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. at the Convocation Center in Cleveland.

The game will mark the Vikings’ Kate Peterson’s first regular season game as head coach.

“I thought things went pretty well — we came out like gangbusters and played real intense right off the bat,” Peterson said after the Vikings scrimmaged Ohio State last weekend. “I think we gained a lot of confidence heading into our first game and I feel really good about where we are going.”

The Cyclones have two exhibition wins under their belt already. The team defeated Minnesota State in the season opener and South Dakota last weekend. Both games were played at Hilton Coliseum.

“We’ve been fortunate the last two games to play in front of our fans,” Fennelly said. “But now the challenge is, everything changes when you play for real and you play on the road.”

The team’s only senior, guard Erica Junod, tallied 28 points for the Cyclones in the two games. Center Lisa Kriener also played well during the exhibition season, as she has sunk 28 points.

Although Junod and Kriener have gotten off to good starts offensively, Fennelly said there are things both offensively and defensively that need to be done better.

“We need to maintain offensive efficiency and have discipline on defense to be in the right place at the right time,” Fennelly said. “Once you’ve done that, it all comes down to effort. And our effort has been good; we just have to get it to the right spots.”

Fennelly has been mixing up the positions this year and, as a result, many of the women are having to learn a lot of roles.

“[Fennelly] is subbing like a hockey team,” Fox said. “So you have to know what position you are subbing for and where you need to be. It’s tough.”

The team needs to prove its level of readiness in a regular season game, Fennelly said.

“The exhibition games gave us a lot to build on, and hopefully we can see that starting on Saturday,” he said.