Sporting a 6-1 record and coming off 35- and 40-point wins over the last week, the Cyclone women’s basketball team is playing with confidence.

But not enough confidence, according to head coach Bill Fennelly, to overlook tonight’s opponents, the 2-3 Drake Bulldogs.

“People that look at Drake’s record and say, ‘They aren’t very good,’ — those people really don’t know this team,” Fennelly said.

The Bulldogs opened their season with a tough two-point loss to Kansas State. They bounced back, however, to pummel Marquette before dropping consecutive tournament games to Alabama and top-ten North Carolina State.

The game everyone in Des Moines is talking about, however, is last week’s encounter with the powerful Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Facing the Huskers at the Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, the Bulldogs were far from intimidated.

On the strength of a six-rebound advantage and eight second half three-pointers, Drake built on a three-point halftime lead en route to an 88-77 win.

“Their win at Nebraska is obviously one people are going to point to,” Fennelly said. “We know we’ll have to come with our ‘A’ game.”

Stephanie Schmitz and Erin Richards led the Bulldogs over Nebraska with 27 and 22 points, respectively, and currently lead the team in scoring.

Richards is averaging 16.2 points per contest to go with 5.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists. She is also the current long-range leader on the team with twice as many treys as any other player.

Schmitz is averaging 13.8 points per game and 6.2 boards.

Post players Haley Sames and Carla Bennett came alive against the Huskers, picking up 10 rebounds each and will be looked to for much of the same against the Cyclones.

In addition to leading the team in rebounding, Sames also averages over 12 points a contest.

Bennett joins Richards as the only two Bulldogs with the distinction of hitting more shots so far this season than they’ve missed.

The fifth Bulldog starter is senior forward Megan Wright, who averages 6.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.

All-American Tammi Blackstone has come off the bench this season to average nearly five points and three rebounds per game.

Coach Fennelly does not expect the same blowout against the Bulldogs that he’s seen his team deliver to most of their other early season opponents.

“I hope there’s not a rout,” he said. “Because if there is, we’ll be on the bottom of it.”

The Cyclones will likely continue to feature more three-guard, two-post sets after their success this past weekend.

“Players tend to play better when they’re more comfortable,” Fennelly said, “and that’s what using three guards and two post players gives us.

“We just put [Gintare Cipinyte] and [Desiree Francis] out there and said, ‘Now, you have to do it. Megan Taylor’s not going to save your butt.’ Before, we weren’t making them do it. Now they have to.”

The team responded on Saturday with a 93-53 thrashing of Western Illinois. After the game, many players pointed to better team chemistry for their success of late.

“For some reason, we haven’t been cohesive yet this year,” point guard Stacy Frese said. “Something clicked today, and we just played a lot better.”

Fennelly wasn’t so sure.

“I wasn’t as concerned with the chemistry out there as the players were,” he said. “When things aren’t going well, players tend to think it’s a problem with chemistry, where coaches tend to think they should just be playing harder.”

Against the Bulldogs, Iowa State refuses to go in assuming a victory, but matches up well and should continue to play with confidence.

“We know we can go in there and win,” forward Monica Huelman said. “We can beat all of these teams. We just have to keep the groove.”

After bringing a solid contingent to the Creighton game in Omaha, the Cyclones are hoping to draw a sizeable crowd to Des Moines for this game.

“I’m sure there’ll be people there to support us,” Frese said. “A lot of them want to see a game and this one should be a little more exciting.”

Win or lose, the road doesn’t get any easier after Drake as ISU will then return home for its big weekend matchup with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

“These are the kind of games that you get into coaching for,” Fennelly said. “It’ll be a tough week, but it should be a lot of fun.”