Leaps and bounds. Those words could describe the rapid development of the Iowa State women’s soccer team.

Entering its third season of varsity competition, the Cyclones come off of an impressive 12-9 overall record from a year ago, including an outstanding 10-3 home record.

Last season, the team earned its first appearance in the Big 12 postseason tournament.

Coach Cathy Klein was also named 1997 Big 12 co-coach of the year after leading the squad to its first conference victories and winning season ever.

“Whenever I struggle with something, Coach Klein has helped me a lot,” junior forward Jun Shen said. “She encourages me, pushes me and comforts me.”

Even with the loss of ISU’s all-time leading scorer Jo Hinks, the squad returns eight starters and 14 letterwinners from last year’s squad.

Included in that group is junior Lindsey Rector, a second team all-Big 12 team member from a year ago; Shen, a first team Academic all-Big 12 team member; junior goalkeeper Hayley Mercer and junior defender Alicia Rollison, both members of the honorable mention Academic all-Big 12 team.

Klein takes an optimistic approach in looking at the upcoming season.

“We’re deeper at every position this season, and we’re a much more balanced team,” Klein said. “We are more excited this season then we’ve ever been before.”

Klein also points out that this season’s squad, which features eight newcomers, is decidedly younger as well.

Only one senior, defender Ann Davy, remains on the team. Still, Klein finds many positives in her young squad.

“Our leadership and work ethic is so great, and we have a system in place that will succeed,” Klein said. “We have a commitment to excellence on and off the field.”

Players have feelings similar to their coach.

“There has been a change in attitude this season,” Mercer said. “We have much more positive energy this season and more athletic players with high levels of technical ability on the field.”

“This team is like a family for me. If we keep our teamwork and chemistry strong, we’ll contribute together towards our success,” Shen said.

Realistically, though, Klein sees some areas in which the team can and must improve.

“Our team defense must be better, and we must make the most of our goal scoring opportunities,” Klein said. “Improving our relentlessness towards attacking and defending is important.”

A variety of improvements can be made this season, players say.

“We have a great work ethic, but we’re going to have to get to know each other better and get some sort of cohesiveness on the field,” Rollison said.

“We are working hard on sustaining a high level of play to completely dominate on the attack,” Mercer said.

A fire burns within the team to maintain last season’s level of play and to improve upon it.

“I hope we can make it to the Big 12 tournament again and have a better record than last year,” Rector said. “We want to make ourselves known nationally as a team.”

“We’re looking to improve our offense from this spring,” Davy said. “We’re always looking to be strong on defense because of the tough competition in the Big 12.”

Klein and her team began play this season with an Aug. 22 scrimmage against Minnesota. The regular season kicks off on Friday, Sept. 4, with a road game at Vanderbilt.

With that being said, what will the team have to do in order to compete at a high level?

“We want to succeed better than we did last year in the Big 12,” Klein said. “We have to develop more team chemistry and work harder than ever before.”