Some believe that when it comes to athletics, experience is everything.

That opinion got a boost Friday at the ISU Soccer Complex. An ISU soccer team that boasts eight freshmen and only one senior took on No. 23 Illinois.

The result was an agonizing 6-0 defeat for the Cyclones.

The Fighting Illini were out of the gate early, scoring on a header by Lindsay Johnson just four minutes into the match. Illinois would add two more goals in the first half.

As the match progressed Illinois emerged as the more aggressive team.

“There are times when we need to get pressure on the ball, and we weren’t doing that well enough as a group,” said ISU head coach Stephanie Gabbert.

Within an eight-minute span in the second half, Illinois scored three more goals to shut the door on any chances of an ISU comeback.

It was a hard one to swallow for several Cyclones, but a learning experience at the same time.

“We’re real disappointed,” said ISU goalkeeper Beth Chapman.

“I feel like we played a lot better than we did last year [against Illinois], and we still lost pretty bad.”

Chapman was one of the bright spots for Iowa State. The sophomore tallied 10 saves, including two diving stops, in the first half. Karen Hasselman took over the goalkeeping duties at the start of the second half.

Although she admitted to some pre-match jitters, freshman Sarah Kovarik was impressive with her energetic play.

“Everything’s a lot harder, a lot faster, but it’s the same game,” said Kovarik. “You’re gonna get hit like that every game, if not harder.” The physical play didn’t seem to slow her down.

Shots-on-goal was a key statistic against Illinois as Iowa State was out-shot 19-1.

“You can’t score if you don’t shoot,” said Gabbert. “We’re getting in behind, which is good, but we have to get the shots off too.”