Splitting a two-game set at home this weekend, the Iowa State women’s soccer team showed great promise to improve upon last season’s already impressive 10-8-1 overall record and 5-5 mark in the Big 12.

The Cyclones started the season with a conference game against No. 19 Baylor, the reigning Big 12 champions and a team that the Cyclones had never beaten.

Resilient and determined while playing in 90-degree heat against top competition, the Cyclones took the Bears to double overtime before finally succumbing to Baylor, 2-1.

After the game, head coach Cathy Klein and her team were absolutely spent.

“The heat, our youth … we don’t need practice right now, we need rest, ice and some TLC,” Klein said. “Those kids need to stay off their legs and get put back together.”

“Everybody was getting tired; we played 100-plus minutes,” sophomore goalkeeper Lynley Hilligoss said. “It was hot, we were tired, but you have to keep going. The wind didn’t go our way today, but we tried our hardest.”

The Cyclones’ defense, led by scrappy senior Alicia Rollison, kept Baylor at bay for most of the game.

Offensively, though, the squad showed a tentative nature early on before aggressively challenging the Bears in all facets of the game in the second half.

In the end, heat, lack of execution on scoring opportunities and perhaps inexperience left the Cyclones with a defeat.

Klein said that the freshmen were handed an impressive challenge to begin their ISU careers but showed themselves well in the adversity.

“Our freshmen were thrown to the wolves today. I think that to start a game against Baylor, at the physical level, the emotional level, the crowd attention … everything is so foreign to them and so appropriately they’re nervous,” Klein said. “That’s always the peril of starting such a young group, but to their credit they bucked up and did a good job.”

On Sunday, Texas Tech strolled into Ames and left with a 4-0 defeat.

A dominating effort against the Red Raiders was made possible thanks to two first half goals by sophomore midfielder/forward Erica Florez and two second half goals by junior midfielder Krista Odenwald, as well as the flawless play of Hilligoss, who recorded the fifth shutout of her young career.

Going into this weekend’s Cyclone Classic, the Cyclones’ 1-1 record is even more impressive when considering the fact that five freshmen are currently starting for the Cyclones.

Midfielder Katie Antongiovanni, midfielder/defender Tiffany Belz, defender Lindsay Lees, midfielder/defender Angie Portincaso and defender Lauren Sims have all cracked the starting lineup for the Cyclones and each has impressed during the infant stages of their ISU careers.

Despite showing some tentativeness against Baylor, Hilligoss was impressed with the play of her freshman teammates.

“I have so much confidence in our freshmen that it really doesn’t matter [about] age,” Hilligoss said. “They played excellent today; from defense to midfield to forward, they played awesome. Age doesn’t mean anything, and I thought they were just as confident as anyone.”

Another freshman, midfielder/forward Annie Henley looked very strong against Baylor. However, a nagging knee injury from pre-season kept her contributions against Texas Tech to a minimum.

Klein said that Henley’s toughness makes her willingness to leave the lineup even harder.

“Not much will keep her out of the lineup, but we just have to keep her iced up and get her in and out of the lineup,” Klein said.

On the subject of injuries, Portincaso suffered a concussion and Rollison injured her toe during Sunday’s game, Klein said. The injuries are perhaps the only downside to the Cyclones’ positive start.

“We’re pretty injured right now ,and I’m concerned about that,” Klein said. “Alicia Rollison is our verbal commander, and she needs to be healthy, and she isn’t today. Luckily, we had the luxury of getting up early thanks to Erica, so we felt if we could rest them [Portincaso, Henley and Rollison], we would.”

Because of injuries, the Cyclones’ bench must prove that it can play cohesively with the starters, sustain and increase leads, as well as come from behind when needed.

On Sunday, the Cyclones played 18 players and were able to preserve the 4-0 victory.

Two of Sunday’s heroes, Odenwald and Florez, both said that the victory, the first overall and in-conference win for the Cyclones, was due in large part to the team’s dedication to one another.

“We train hard for each other, and I knew that, up 2-0, we weren’t going to quit on each other,” Odenwald said. “We were going to keep working hard and not let it go down the tubes because of the work we’ve done.”

“I think we just wanted to come out and win and after the Baylor game, it was tough,” Florez said. “We were definitely looking forward to this game and trying to win, coming out strong and playing hard.”

Injuries and inexperience must be overcome in order for the Cyclones to achieve their goals of Big 12 supremacy.

Perhaps more importantly, the starters must continue to improve upon their promising early play and lift the performances of everyone around them.

Defense + Offense = Victory is a tried and true formula for athletic success, and this is no different for the women’s soccer team.