Coming off a win against Oklahoma, Iowa State soccer was looking to start its first winning streak in years. To do that, it would have to go through the Texas Longhorns and their relentless attack.

Iowa State, along with most other sporting teams, knew that when you have chances, you have to capitalize on them. The Cyclones have seemingly struggled with creating good, consistent chances. Friday saw those chances go by once again.

After playing a plethora of ranked teams to start their season, the team felt like it was finally hitting its stride, and ready to make themselves known in the Big 12. However, even in a game where the team felt as though they had the upper hand, they came up short.

“I think we dominated this game, we’ve just got to clean up a couple things,” Mira Emma said. 

While most of the stats didn’t reflect a Cyclone-dominant game necessarily (shots were tied 12-12), it certainly seemed as though it was just a couple of bad breaks or bad timing issues that sank the Cyclones.

The only goal of the 1-0 game was off a foul that occurred right out in front of Jordan Silkowitz and the Cyclone net, and Haley Berg was able to put it in the left side of the goal early in the second half.

While at the time, neither team knew it would be the difference maker, it seemingly felt as though Iowa State played with a lot more urgency, while Texas was content to just be ahead.

The Longhorns came into this game beating Kansas State 7-0, so the fact that they didn’t manage a goal aside from a stopped ball shows how much the Cyclones were in this game.

“We had the opportunity to win the game tonight…you can do everything right and not come out on top,” said Head Coach Matt Fannon when asked about how he thought the Cyclones played.

It’s incredibly difficult to say the Cyclones have been a shot or two away from a winning record, but it’s not like they’ve been blown out of the water in every game. Every single one of their matches so far has been a one goal game aside from a 2-0 defeat in the season opener.

It’s also a tribute to the defense and the sophomore goaltender Silkowitz, as they have yet to yield more than 2 goals, and most of the games have been 1-0.

With a team in development mode, as a first year head coach and a team that went winless in conference play the season prior usually are, it usually seems to be 1-0 against them more than its 1-0 in favor. 

Fannon knows that the team is in all of these games, but he also knows that nothing matters except for the score.

“We don’t have all the stats or possession yards… it’s just about the score in the end.”

Surely it was frustrating to lose tonight, and Emma says that “we’ll take it out on Texas Tech.”

The Cyclones travel to Lubbock next Friday night to take on that very team, with hopes of moving back in the mix of the Big 12 conference with just three games to play.