The Iowa State soccer team was coming off one of its best seasons. It had a 10-8-1 record, finished in the top 50 of the season’s end RPI, and nearly made the NCAA Tournament.

Then, it came crashing down.

This week, the 2017 soccer team will play its last game of the season — one they will go into with a 2-12-3 record, and nearly a third of the roster missing.

It hasn’t been an ideal year for coach Tony Minatta and company.

“With all of the injuries we had and five Big 12 overtime games, it’s just something that we need to close out on a positive note,” Minatta said. “We want to work as hard as we can and maintain that consistent effort.”

Part of the team’s struggles this season have been overtime periods. Iowa State has played in eight overtime games over the course of the season, going 0-5-3.

This weekend, with less pressure, the team will look to finish things off with a win.

The Cyclones will be traveling to Manhattan, Kansas, on Friday to face the Kansas State Wildcats in their final game of the regular season.

Kansas State has a 1-7 record on the Big 12 season, with an upset win against Kansas. Other than that, K-State has shown they haven’t been able to finish games.

“It will be interesting,” Minatta said. “In a lot of close games they’ve played very low pressure to keep in games. Sometimes they’ve opened themselves up.”

Low pressure will play right into Iowa State’s strategy. The Cyclones, being defense minded, usually sit back and try to stop the pressure being put on by the opposition.

“If they open up, expect our forwards to attack their back line,” Minatta said.

Iowa State hasn’t been the most offensive team this season, only netting 11 goals in 17 games, but without any pressure on the team, that might help the group break out of its shell.

Neither team is going to the Big 12 Tournament, so expect a lot of high risk moves since there won’t be any negative in taking a loss.

That doesn’t mean the Cyclones aren’t still giving an effort.

Minatta has gone on about how a team that succumbs to nearly one season-ending injury a week has kept going, trying to overcome the adversity in front of them.

“It’s awesome that everyone [despite the lack of success] is still working hard,” said senior Brianna Johnson. “I think the win will come with that.”

Iowa State and Kansas State will kick off from Manhattan at 7 p.m. on Friday, at the K-State Athletics Complex.