The ISU lacrosse club hasn’t competed in more than three weeks, but don’t expect them to be rusty when they host nine games this weekend.

“We’re ready to get back in the saddle,” president Nick Swaggert said. “We’re definitely excited to showcase some of our new players in front of our home crowd.”

Attack captain Jason Hubanks said the team, which practiced outdoors for the first time this season on Tuesday, was rusty from Spring Break. But the senior said the team began to gel a little more as the practice progressed.

“It started to pick up during practice,” Hubanks said. “Everyone got back to their normal playing style.”

The last tournament Iowa State competed in took place March 1-2 in Minneapolis. The Cyclones fell to Minnesota 7-4 the first day and defeated St. Cloud State 10-7 the following day.

This weekend, Iowa State will battle its major rival Minnesota State-Mankato at 4:30 p.m. Friday to kick off the tournament.

Mankato is 5-0 and sits at second in the Upper Midwest Lacrosse League standings. Its team presents the biggest challenge to the Cyclones, who are currently fifth in the 12-team UMLL, and Swaggert expects a battle.

“Lacrosse is always physical,” Swaggert said. “It’s a little more physical when they know they’re one of the top teams in the league and we’re one of the top teams in the league.”

Swaggert, a sophomore, said recent history is in Iowa State’s favor. The last time Iowa State and Mankato hooked up was in last season’s UMLL championship tournament. The seventh-seeded Cyclones upset second-seeded Mankato with an 8-7 victory.

“We’ve knocked them out of the end-of-the-season tournament two years in a row,” Swaggert said. “We’ve beaten them consecutive years when they were ranked higher than us. They’re always out to get us.”

The Cyclones face Wisconsin-Stevens Point at noon on Saturday and finish with Marquette at noon on Sunday.

Minnesota, Minnesota State-Moorhead and St. John’s will also be participating in the games, which will be held on the field east of the Maple-Willow-Larch residence halls.

Stevens Point (3-1) sits directly ahead of Iowa State in the standings and Marquette (3-1) is third.

Hubanks said the team has done well against Stevens Point in the past, but are going into a blind matchup with Marquette. The two teams have never met before.

“It’ll be an interesting game,” Hubanks said.