The Iowa State women’s soccer team begins its second season today with numerous changes.

Iowa State Coach Cathy Klein said as many as nine newcomers could see playing action when the Cyclones start the season today at home against Teikyo Westmar at 3 p.m.

One player who will not be seeing any playing action for Iowa State today is last season’s leading scorer Jocelyn Nordstrom. She received a red card during the final game of last season, and by NCAA rules must sit out the first game of this season.

The Cyclones will face powerful Nebraska at home on Sunday at 2 p.m. Nebraska has been ranked in the top 20 in the nation by most pre-season polls.

Klein said looking ahead to the Nebraska game will not be a problem for her team today.

“I don’t think we can afford the luxury of looking past anyone with nine newcomers in the lineup,” she said. “We are going to take the attitude this year that we are not going to worry about who we are playing against on any given day, but instead we are going to worry about doing the things that it takes to win.”

Iowa State finished with a 5-7 record last season. Included in one of those seven losses was a 4-0 defeat by Nebraska.

“What is scary about looking at the Nebraska score from last year is that they are least five goals better this season than they were last season,” Klein said. “They have tremendous team speed and they had one of the best recruiting classes in the nation.”

Having Nordstrom back will help Iowa State compensate for the quickness of the Cornhuskers.

Nordstrom was Iowa State’s leading scorer as a forward last season. She was switched to defender this season.

“I didn’t like the change at first because I have always had the mentality of a forward,” Nordstrom said. “But I like the fact that I will be handling the ball a lot more.”

One of the newcomers Klein talked about was Lindsey Rector. Rector is slated to start at one of the midfielder positions for the Cyclones.

“It will be exciting to get out on the field and play a game instead of practicing and scrimmaging all the time,” Rector said. “Even though I was not on the team last year, I do know we will be looking to penetrate more and score more goals in the process.”

Even though Iowa State finished with a respectable 5-7 record last season, it did not come without its adverse conditions.

Klein was not hired until July of last year and only given little more than a month to put together a team and coaching staff.

Having Klein for two seasons has added some stability to the team.

“A lot of people on campus did not even know we had a team last year,” Nordstrom said. “This year we have gotten a lot more respect, people are starting to stop us in the halls and recognize us as soccer players.”

Klein said the team has shown her a lot in the two short weeks that they have been practicing together.

“We will be properly prepared going into the season,” Klein said. “How successful we will be depends on how well we do the things that we have been preparing for in practice.”