With 10 opponents left on the schedule before the Big 12 Championship in March, the ISU women’s gymnastics team faces a daunting task. All but one of the teams is ranked in the latest GymInfo national rankings.

It starts this weekend, when the Cyclones entertain No. 19 Iowa with a nine-year winning streak on the line.

“We have very tough opponents from now until the end of the season,” head coach K.J. Kindler said.

“Everybody we’re going against is ranked at the top, not the bottom. It’s going to be tough every meet.”

The Cyclones placed third in last weekend’s triangular in Denver, Colo., dropping to 1-3 on the young season.

Denver and Penn State finished 1-2 at the meet.

“We took a little step backwards this weekend,” Kindler said. “Again, we were on the road, which I think we’re getting used to, but we have no excuses. We’re trying to take as many positive things out of it as we can, and turn it around for this weekend.”

Freshman Erin Dethloff, whose second-place finish in the all-around in only her third collegiate competition was one of the few bright spots for Iowa State, said she’s looking forward to the rough schedule.

“We do have a lot of tough competition coming up, especially Nebraska,” said Dethloff, who hails from Omaha, Neb. “We had a tough loss in Denver, but we’re very confident and we’re going to show everyone what we’re made of.”

The Cornhuskers are ranked fourth nationally, and will face Iowa State twice before the regular season concludes in a little less than two months.

Also on tap is No. 7 Florida, No. 8 Denver and No. 17 Oklahoma. The only meet in which Iowa State won’t face a ranked opponent is against Missouri on March 7.

Kindler said in order to withstand the grueling schedule, her squad must improve on the uneven bars and the balance beam.

“Beam and bars weren’t very good this weekend,” Kindler said. “We had three falls on both events. It was uncharacteristic on beam.”

Kindler said she expressed to the team that improvement is the goal until the Big 12 meet on March 29, where they hope to be in top form.

“We know we have to do better and we know that wasn’t good enough,” Kindler said. “There are some veterans that have to get it together a little bit. Once they do, I think we’ll do great this year.

“We have a lot of improvement to make and that’s what we’re focusing on because what really matters is March,” Kindler said.