The Iowa State Softball team is poised to start off their season on a high note, as they get ready to battle at the Doc Halverson UNI Dome Classic in Cedar Falls this weekend.

The Cyclones will face off against Omaha, Drake and Northern Iowa over the course of the weekend.

Omaha and UNI are especially intriguing matchups for the Cyclones since both teams finished with over 30 wins last season.

Coach Jamie Pinkerton has high hopes for this upcoming tournament as he looks to see the team’s performance against some tough competition.

“It’s good to play teams that have been indoors, on turf, and in a kind of controlled environment,” Pinkerton said. “We’re a little nicked up right now, but to get out there and play somebody else and see where we’re at because we’re a veteran ball club with some newcomers. So I think we did a pretty good job with implementing lineups in the fall so now it’s time to see how they go out there and compete, especially with wins and losses now counting for or against us.”

Senior Catcher Mikayla Ramos is a big name to watch this season as she is 18 RBI’s short of the Iowa State record only trailing Erica Miller’s record of 149 RBI’s.

Senior right-handed pitcher Ellie Spelhaug is also chasing history for the Cyclones. She is currently four saves away from becoming the new Iowa State record holder in saves.

Pinkerton said he believes that the team can look to improve upon their 28-27 record from last season and look to make the NCAA postseason in May.

“I mean that’s always the goal to go play in the postseason in May,” Pinkerton said. “There are also goals to finish higher in the standings and I feel that we have attained that. We were able to go from sixth to fifth to fourth and we just look to continue that maturation of the program to the point where we can continue to improve each year and sort of let things play out from there.”

Iowa State will play their first matchup of the year against Omaha at noon Friday, then play Drake at 5 p.m.

Saturday, they will start off against Drake at 3 p.m. and then play Northern Iowa at 5:30 p.m. Finally, they will wrap up the tournament by playing Northern Iowa at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.