After a two-game home-stand last week, the Iowa State soccer team is back on the road this week with a matchup against the Texas Longhorns on Friday.

The Cyclones captured their first Big 12 win of the season Sunday against the Kansas Jayhawks at the Cyclone Sports Complex, ultimately winning the match 1-0 thanks to a Mira Emma goal halfway through the first half and behind what head coach Matt Fannon called a “complete performance.”

“We’ve had games this year, multiple games, where we’ve played really well in one half,” Fannon said. “And we’ve had games where we did a really good job of following the game plan but almost ignored the game to our detriment. I think that Sunday was a day where we did a really good job on both sides of the ball.”

The Cyclones will encounter a much tougher test against Texas, as the Longhorns come into this matchup with an overall record of 7-3-3, having won six out of their last seven matches. The lone game that did not result in a win was a 1-1 double-overtime draw against No. 10 TCU and featured freshman forward Trinity Byars establishing a school record by scoring in her sixth consecutive match for the Longhorns.

Byars and fellow freshman Lexi Missimo will be players to watch for Texas, as the pair are currently the top two ranked freshmen in Division I soccer according to Top Drawer Soccer’s midseason list. They have also collected the Big 12’s Freshman of the Week award for the last five consecutive weeks.

Byars and Missimo have led the Longhorns’ offense all season long, combining for 13 of the 19 goals Texas has scored so far this year. Byars is also on a seven-match point-scoring streak, which is the second-best in program history.

Senior defender Taylor Bee spoke on the keys to producing another strong performance against the Longhorns.

“I think the biggest thing is winning the big moments,” Bee said. “We know that they’re a good team and have great players individually, but I think if we can come together and play as team and feed off of each other, that’s going to be huge. It’s going to come down to who wants it more.”

Bee has played virtually every minute of soccer possible this season, 909 in total through 10 matches. The Fort Collins, Colorado native also made her 60th appearance against the Jayhawks last week and will anchor a veteran defense alongside fellow seniors Brooke Miller and Mckenna Schultz against the Longhorns’ potent attack.

Fannon also provided his thoughts on the matchup, saying that, “Texas are a different animal. They’re a team that are consistently full of world-class players.”

Much like most of their games this season, this match will also come down to finer details of each play and moment for the Cyclones. The win against Kansas highlighted this point again as that victory was the eighth match this season decided by one goal. 

Fannon again discussed these ingredients of the match by saying, “In moments, we’re going to want to move the ball around, want to chase and defend really smartly. We’re also going to have to take our chances because they’re good defensively and we’re not going to get a lot [of shots]. I could probably say that about every Big 12 team right?, because that’s how every game is going to be.”

Iowa State will kick off against Texas at 7 p.m. Friday at the Mike A. Meyers Stadium in Austin.

The match will be streamed live on the Longhorn Network.