Three days removed from their loss against previous No. 1 South Carolina, the Cyclones will travel to Iowa City on Wednesday to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes in the annual Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series.

The Hawkeyes are rolling so far this season, boasting a 3-0 record and a win over Wisconsin on Saturday, while the Cyclones sit at 2-2 on the season after an emphatic win over TCU to open conference play and then a loss against South Carolina.

Iowa has won the last four games over Iowa State, and the players on the team, specifically the seniors, are ready to get a win over their in-state rival.

“It’s a huge one, anytime a Cy-Hawk game is played it’s really big,” senior guard Madison Wise said. “We were all talking about it in the locker room … how we haven’t gotten one and this would be huge for us so definitely need to come prepared to practice today and ready to go for tomorrow.”

Wise said not having a win over Iowa is a motivator and they need to come out and play strong, communicate and play team basketball in order for a win to occur.

Junior guard Ashley Joens, who shot 1-10 from the field last time she played at Iowa, said she uses that as motivation and is excited to play such a big game, but you have to play it like every other game.

“It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten a win over there,” Joens said. “But you want to win every game, you just go out there and play and you gotta keep battling and competing the whole time.”

One player that is making a name for herself at Iowa and Head Coach Bill Fennelly had plenty to say about was freshman guard Caitlin Clark, who was a five-star recruit out of high school and was just named both Big 10 Freshman of the Week and Big 10 Player of the Week.

Fennelly said Clark is skilled with the ball, has a tremendous basketball IQ and can score at every level.

“She’s got a fierce competitive nature to her,” Fennelly said. “… I think she’s going to have a phenomenal career for Iowa, and with the exception of the games that I have to play against her, we’re going to root hard for her ’cause she does a lot for our state and promoting the game in our state.”

Joens and Clark were previously teammates on the USA team and on the All-Iowa Attack, but Joens isn’t very focused on who is wearing the other team’s jersey when she is playing.

“It’s just another game, you gotta go out there and play and compete,” Joens said. “It doesn’t really matter who’s wearing the other jersey, you just gotta go out there and play together and compete against them.”

Although it resulted in a loss, Joens said the game against South Carolina on Sunday helped prepare the team for the upcoming game against Iowa with how aggressive and competitive the Gamecocks were.

Fennelly said the team’s response in practice after the loss to South Carolina was good and that they had individual meetings and a short practice Monday where they were engaged.

“That’s the great thing about basketball, you don’t have a whole lot of time to feel sorry for yourself or celebrate,” Fennelly said. “Not with our schedule, it’s the toughest pre-Christmas schedule we’ve ever played in my time here, so you better get moving quickly.”

The Iowa State Cyclones will face off against the Iowa Hawkeyes at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The game will be available to watch on Big Ten Network Plus.