Senior midfielder Lindsey Rector summed up the team’s seven-game road trip when she said, “There are hills and valleys in every season.” But the three losses during their seven-game road trip can hardly seem like a valley, considering how far the team has come since its beginnings.

“Everybody knows about our first season when we went 0-9.” said senior midfielder Elizabeth Salih. “But we worked up from there, and that was our only losing season.”

Salih and Rector are two of the six seniors that make up the first group of girls to have played four seasons of ISU soccer, joining the team back in 1996. And although there may be hills and valleys to every season, it has been nothing short of a mountainous time since the program took off.

After starting out 8-12 with a winless Big 12 conference season in 96, the Cyclones posted a 12-9 record, 4-6 in the Big 12, and then a 10-8-1 record, 5-5 in conference and finishing fourth in the Big 12. Not bad for a group of upstarts who have seen the good times and the bad.

“I knew that if we worked hard enough, we would see the benefits in four years, and we did,” said senior midfielder Kristina VanDoorn. The benefits she speaks of are the current 10-5 record.

The team started out the gates with a bang this year, going 7-1 in its first eight matches and reaching as high as No. 21 in the national polls. But the team is currently in the valley Rector spoke of, going 3-4 in their last seven matches.

So why the sudden drop-off?

“Inexperience, youth,” said Head Coach Kathy Klein. “We’ve been on the road for four and a half weeks. And it came during a time when school is very heavy.”

But can the team still make the Big 12 tournament?

“We need to win two of our next three games, and all of them are winnable,” coach Klein said.

This weekend could provide two of those three wins needed, as the team takes another road trip, this time to Oklahoma for games against Oklahoma State (4-12) today at 7 p.m. and Oklahoma (2-12) Sunday at 1 p.m.

Currently the team is seventh in the Big 12 with a 3-4 conference record. They need to finish in the top six teams to make the tournament, putting them in a must-win situation this weekend, as they face a stiff challenge in their final game against No. 4 Nebraska on Oct. 29 in Lincoln.

“We need to build confidence and execute under pressure,” said Klein about these next few games.

The Cyclones saluted their six seniors last Sunday during the Kansas game as part of senior day, honoring their contribution to the building of the team. Alicia Rollison will be the first native Iowan to complete her four year soccer career at ISU.

It was also the last home game for Rector, who owns ISU records in career assists, appearances and starts.

For senior goaltender Hayley Mercer, soccer is not the only thing she’s learned from her time on the squad.

“It’s taught me how to compartmentalize and make my life more efficient,” she said.

“This year has been a great achievement for the team,” said senior forward Jun Shen, who had to spend this year on the sidelines due to injury. “I’ll take the confidence and teamwork chemistry I learned and use it for my future career.”

“I’ve learned that you can be the underdog and still succeed,” said VanDoorn, accurately describing the team’s journey since her arrival. “I’ll support the team my whole life. It’s the one thing that I believe in more than anything.”

Last weekend was the last games on the field at ISU for Mercer, VanDoorn, Rollison, Rector, Salih and Shen.

“They are the foundation from which we’ve grown,” said Klein. “They all will leave their own legacy here at ISU.”

Hopefully they can lead the team from the valley they are currently in to the Big 12 tournament and become queens of the hill.