With a little over a week left before the season starts, the Iowa State women’s soccer team held their media day on Friday.

Last season the Cyclones finished a record of 3-12-3 overall and a record of 1-6-2 in the Big 12.

Out of the 18 games the team played last season, the Cyclones played eight overtime games and went 0-5-3 in those games.

“When you go through your last ten games and you go to six overtimes and don’t come out on the winning end of those, it leaves you with more drive and motivation,” head coach Tony Minatta said.

In overtime in college women’s soccer, the golden goal situation is used. The golden goal situation means that the first team to score wins. If no team scores in that time, then the games results in a draw.

Iowa State lost five games in overtime due to the golden situation rule. Some of those games were against highly touted opponents such as NCAA tournament qualifiers Baylor, Florida, TCU and the 2017 Big 12 champions Oklahoma State.

If some of those games went the Cyclones way, then their season might have been more successful.

“If a few those games go the right way for us then we are in a totally different situation even with the injuries. So now that we come back healthy we need more concentration in those moments,” Minatta said.

The team’s season ended on a positive note with a 2-1 victory over Big 12 foe Kansas State, and the team looks to build off that positive momentum.

During the offseason, Minatta, as well as the rest of the team, had time to work on what they need to work on in order to get more wins. Since the Cyclones a lot of games that could have gone either way, the team will look to improve on how they finish games.

“We hit the post or crossbar ten times in total in those close games, so for us, it’s about finishing chances, fitness and being able to stay focused late in games,” Minatta said. “Our strength and conditioning coach did a great job this summer to get them prepared for that.”

In the offseason, the head and assistant soccer coaches can not have structured practices or be working out with the players. However, there are voluntary workouts. Some of those workouts are bright and early at 6 a.m., according to redshirt senior Brooke Tasker.

One of the things that goes into improving their record the next season is accountability. This past offseason the Cyclones did a good job of that.

“We didn’t have our best season, so everyone was ready to put in the work this offseason to improve. Everyone was up here in the summer when they didn’t have to be,” senior co-captain Jordan Enga said.

Another one of the key ingredients to improving a team’s record the next season is having a good work ethic. One Cyclone player, senior forward Klasey Medelberg, showed her good work ethic this offseason.

“I got here in late May and I’ve been working out with the strength and conditioning coach in the offseason, every day Monday through Friday,” Medelberg said.

Since the workouts in the offseason are voluntary and not run by the head or assistant coaches, attending the workouts is not required by the players. However, all the Cyclone showed up this summer.

“Since May, every day we’ve been coming in and working out with the strength and conditioning coach,” senior co-captain Emily Steil said. “We did a captains camp where we ran practices and had 100% participation.”

The workouts these players put themselves through are not easy workouts. But the abilities the players can acquire from these workouts can make a huge difference in the athlete’s athletic ability.

“The workouts were tough, we worked really hard to put ourselves in the best position possible to win games. We want to be more athletic than these teams, and we want to show off our new athletic abilities,” senior co-captain Riley Behan said.

The Cyclones were plagued with injuries last season and they hope to avoid the injury bug this season.

“This year we are ahead in fitness than we have in years past. Fitness is number one priority in fall camp,” Minatta said.

This season, the Cyclones will be changing their playing style a little bit. They’ll be switching from a 4-4-1-1 formation to a more aggressive style, a 4-2-3-1 formation.

“We are playing a 4-2-3-1 formation this season to get more numbers forward this year. We feel that with the personnel that we have, we can do that,” Minatta said.

With this playing style, teams must put an emphasis on taking good shots and taking advantage of their opportunities. For the coaching staff, that is the biggest emphasis this season.

“We’re looking at where we are taking our chances from, getting more opportunities in the danger zone and getting shots on target,” Minatta said.