It’s a brand new ball game for the Iowa State women’s soccer team. The former athletic club recently became recognized as an official university sponsored team. After more than a year of waiting, four days of tryouts, and one week of practice, the Cyclone women embarked on their new season on Saturday afternoon with a scrimmage against Queens Canada.

The Cyclones are what one might call a rookie team and despite this handicap found themselves in a match against a team of veteran Canadian players.

Despite the blistering heat and a good effort, ISU lost its first match ever with a 5-0 score. Their lack of experience and conditioning may have contributed to their loss, two things that could easily be improved on throughout the season to make this new group of soccer players a successful collegiate team.

Head women’s soccer coach Cathy Klein, who formerly led a winning team at Creighton, remained positive after the loss.

“The score reflects where we are at as a team,” she said. “Where we go tomorrow will take a lot of work.”

That much is true. It is very unlikely to expect a brand new team to come in and just blow all their competition out of the water, Klein said.

Team morale was also reflected in this first match.

“They’re very tired. But this is a learning process for everybody and not just at practice but in the classroom, in our fitness workouts, and in our off-season training,” Klein said. “We weren’t ready for this season opener.”

But that does not mean they won’t be for the next game, a scrimmage at Baker University coming up on Sept. 1, she said.

“We are diagramming a path for where we go tomorrow. That’s what my job is here,” Klein said.

A scary moment occurred when freshman Jocelyn Nordstrom suffered a knee injury late in the second half, but she will be able to play in next week’s scrimmage.

Nordstrom was a key player for the Cyclone women and showed great hustle during the match. She had attended Klein’s soccer camp while she was at Creighton and followed her to Ames.

Nordstrom wasn’t the only player to follow Klein to ISU. Lauren Muser, the team’s goal keeper, was a player of Klein’s during her reign at Creighton. Muser performed well in her first game as a Cyclone and had five saves as goalie.

Sophomore Dawn Weber, another Creighton transfer player, also had a good game, having one shot on goal against the Canadian team.

A lot of good things were happening out on the field, and progress is being made with this young team, Klein said.

On her defensive players she said, “The back four were very strong.” Even though the team had all the right moves during some parts of the match, there was still plenty of room for improvement, Klein said. The Cyclones seemed to lack in conditioning, and have much work to do on their transitions from offense to defense.

“Play with passion!” Klein shouted from the sidelines during the last portion of the scrimmage. And for this pioneer team, perhaps the next phrase out of her mouth is even more appropriate — “Be brave.”