Although the ISU softball team takes on Missouri today at the Southwest Athletic Complex in Ames, home-field advantage may not be a factor.

Because of the weather, the team has had only one practice on the field.

And even then, the temperature was in the 30s, resulting in only an hour of practice time, head coach Ruth Crowe said.

“Sometimes having home-field advantage for us isn’t really a home-field advantage. We haven’t been out there enough to consider it that,” Crowe said. “Home-field advantage would be if we played our games in the rec, but of course, we can’t and we wouldn’t want to.”

Despite the lack of time on the field, freshman Lindsey Herrin isn’t worried.

“Just because it’s our own field, we’re excited to play,” she said. “We haven’t been outside on the field very much, but we’ve been on it before. We spent a lot of time out there in the fall. We’ll be ready to go.”

The Cyclones are 2-0 in the Big 12 Conference and 11-8 overall while the Tigers have won 10 of their last 12 games and stand at 0-2 in the conference and 19-18 overall. The teams will meet in the doubleheader at 2 p.m.

Iowa State dropped two games to Missouri a little over a week ago in the Missouri Tournament in Columbia, Mo., 6-4 and 5-3.

Those games didn’t count toward the Cyclones’ conference record.

Both Herrin and Crowe said the Cyclones didn’t play well, and while Crowe was disappointed in the outcome, she said the team will be ready to go this time around.

“We’re looking forward to the rematch. We didn’t feel we played our best against them,” she said.

Herrin said the key will be eliminating some of the mistakes that plagued the Cyclones the first time around.

“We have to be solid everywhere,” she said. “We had a few faults last time we played them – we gave up a grand slam and had some errors. We have to eliminate those and just really be strong all over.”

Iowa State may have a little momentum coming into the games.

The Cyclones knocked off Texas Tech 10-2 on Saturday and 5-2 on Sunday to start the conference season off on a high note.

“I think coach was saying it’s the first time we’ve gone 2-0 in conference to start the season in a long time,” Herrin said. “It’s a nice way to begin the Big 12 schedule. Hopefully we can keep building off that.”

Although Crowe likes the conference start for her team, she said there’s still a lot of work to do.

“It’s very important to get off on the right track, but every weekend and every game is the same – you still have to go out and play well to win,” she said. “Everybody’s so comparative in the conference, so every time you play it’s a battle.”