Defensive troubles prevented the Iowa State women’s softball team from pulling off a weekend sweep of the Texas A&M Aggies and Texas Longhorns on Saturday and Sunday at Lincoln, Neb.

Instead, the Cyclones managed to win only one of three games over the weekend, dropping their record to 5-12 on the season and giving them a 1-2 start in conference play.

Kristin Ferguson pitched the Cyclones to their lone victory, tossing a four-hitter in a 2-0 shutout in the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader versus the Aggies.

“Kristin pitched well,” ISU Coach Ruth Crowe said.

In their opening contest, the Aggies defeated the Cyclones 9-2 in 10 innings.

“We didn’t come up with the key hits and they did,” Crowe said of the loss.

The game was deadlocked 2-2 heading into the 10th inning when the Aggies, sparked by two ISU blunders, bombed the Cyclones for seven runs to seal the victory.

Crowe said she felt the Cyclones played “very well” in their two outings versus the Aggies, but they must work to “cut down on defensive errors.”

ISU also fell to the sixth-ranked Texas Longhorns over the weekend, losing a hard-fought battle Sunday by the score of 3-2.

Even though the Cyclones hung tough with the mighty Longhorns, Crowe was not satisfied with their performance.

“We didn’t execute very well,” Crowe said, “I wasn’t overly pleased with the outcome.”

She added, “If we do a few things right, we’re 3-0 on the weekend.”

Cyclone Cinnamon Gooding also said ISU could have played better, but added they showed they could play with the top teams in the nation.

“We’re not overmatched in the Big 12,” she said. “We’ll probably be contenders.”

The games were originally scheduled to be played in Ames, but were moved to Lincoln due to poor field conditions at ISU’s Southwest Athletic Complex.