The Iowa State soccer team opened its season at home this weekend, coming out even against two Texas rivals. The Cyclones lost 2-1 to Baylor on Friday and shut out Texas Tech 4-0 on Sunday.

Cyclone Coach Cathy Klein said she is pleased with the team and said it is “absolutely progressing.”

In Friday afternoon’s scorcher, ISU fought hard before falling to the Bears in double overtime.

Baylor came into the match with a preseason ranking of 19 as well as the 1998 Big-12 championship.

The Cyclones kept the conference power under wraps until the final seven seconds of the first half.

After a Cyclone corner, the Bears pushed the ball up the left side and popped it over ISU goalkeeper Lynley Hilligoss’s head.

Klein said her Cyclones had played their tails off for 44 minutes and dug themselves a hole in the last seven seconds.

“I told them that they created themselves a difficult situation by mentally letting down for seven seconds,” Klein said.

Klein left it to the players to get out of the mess by going after it in the second interval of play.

They did. With nothing on the board, the Cyclones returned to the battlefield with a more aggressive approach. Packing more punch, the cardinal and gold dominated the second half.

Senior Lindsey Rector put the first and only Cyclone goal into the net with 11 minutes of play remaining.

In doing so, she lit up the board, brought the bench and coaches to their feet and evened the score.

Baylor and ISU continued to attack the goals until the buzzer. The balanced score brought on overtime.

The 15-minute scoring drought brought on more extended play. Ten minutes into double overtime, the Bears gunned a goal to take the match.

Klein said she did not expect to beat Baylor, but the team was as close as it’s ever been.

According to goalie Hilligoss, ISU’s performance against Baylor served as a springboard for the team’s confidence.

“The confidence from the Baylor game can be carried over into games like (Sunday’s),” she said.

Tallying 22 saves in the Sunday event, Hilligoss and the squad got the shutout. The goalie said she played “pretty well and organized her defense”.

Also, she credited her teammates for their “incredible” play.

Sophomore Erica Florez was responsible for the first two Cyclone goals that gave ISU its 2-0 lead at the half.

Less than 30 seconds into the second span, Cyclone junior Krista Odenwald drove the ball up for a dual against the Red Raider goalie. She won.

Odenwald put ISU up 3-0 and decided to go for another. Teammate Florez tossed the balloon to the right corner and from there Odenwald crossed the field to score.

The rest of the match, neither team saw net even though ISU spent a fair amount of time defending its own.

More than half of Texas Tech’s shots on goal came in the second half, but Hilligoss, one time with the help of the goalpost, saved them all.

Klein said she had asked Hilligoss to play at a higher level in order to compensate for the injuries that resulted from Friday’s match.

“She held us in,” Klein said.

Hilligoss, only a sophomore with a mere 21 games under her belt, said she wasn’t nervous that her coach asked her to step things up.

“Whatever role she puts me in, I’ve got to accept it and do my best at it,” she said.

Klein later added that the goalie’s play against Texas Tech demonstrated her caliber.

“I have 100 percent faith that Lynley Hilligoss can play at the national level.”

The Cyclones will be back in action next weekend, hosting Western Michigan and Ball State.