The football players weren’t the only ones taking on the Hawkeyes last weekend. In their first matchup of the season, the ISU men’s lacrosse club went up against Iowa Saturday.

The results were similar to that of the football team, as the Cyclones lost 6-3.

Although the team lost, captain Nick Swaggert, junior in political science, said his team’s performance was pleasing.

“We played a lot of new guys,” Swaggert said. “Almost half of our team is new players, some who had never even really played before [this] game. This game gave them some good experience.”

Swaggert said the team has 37 people out this year, the highest total ever.

“Winning was important, since it was the Hawkeyes, but we’re still happy that we accomplished most of our goals,” Swaggert said.

Ironically, the players with the least experience were the only ones who put any goals in the net.

David Post, freshman in pre-professional health programs, and John Urick, freshman in chemical engineering, accounted for the Cyclones’ only points, scoring one and two goals, respectively.

The rivalry with Iowa remains intense, Swaggert said, but he added that things didn’t get out of hand like they did at last year’s scrimmage.

“Last fall we got in a little fight, so this year we wanted to avoid that. There was a lot better sportsmanship this time,” Swaggert said.

“The rivalry’s still there but there wasn’t as much cheap stuff as there has been in the past.”

Lacrosse club president Kyle Andringa, junior in aerospace engineering, said he is optimistic the results will be different the next time the two teams meet.

“I was impressed with the guys that had never played before; [they] showed a lot of promise,” Andringa said. “I think we’ll get exponentially better throughout the year.”

The Cyclones will duel with the Hawkeyes again sometime in early 2004, but also face the chance of meeting up with them in some tournaments before that. The club team will next see action at a tournament at Kansas State Oct. 4. The Hawkeyes will also attend that tournament.

“In my eyes, the rivalry’s huge,” Andringa said. “We really want to take the season series from them.”