Confidence is high around the Iowa State women’s soccer program ahead of the season opener Friday night against Creighton.

The Cyclones lost their last preseason game against Purdue 2-1 last Saturday, but coach Tony Minatta said Thursday that there were many positives to take from the defeat.

“We put a lot of pressure on their goal and created a lot of chances,” Minatta said. There were some really good moments, but we identified exactly why we got scored on. Those were mistakes that are easily corrected.”

When asked if there would be any tactical changes taking place for the game Friday, he was very confident in how the team plays in the 4-4-2 diamond formation they utilized for most of the 2016 season.

“We want to stick to our system and our standard and it’s just a matter of everybody buying into that and playing to their potential for us to be successful,” Minatta said.

Creighton comes into Friday’s game having gone 1-1-0 in their two preseason games, losing 1-0 to Minnesota and winning 4-1 over Hastings College (Neb.). Creighton completed the 2016 season with a record of 9-6-2, which included a 3-1 loss to the Cyclones, but also lost four-time leading goalscorer Lauren Sullivan to graduation.

“They’re an interesting team,” Minatta said. “It’s a very young team and they’re a team that’s going to try to find their roles and replace [Sullivan]. We just have to be prepared for whatever they’re going to throw at us.”

Senior defender and team captain Brianna Johnson was confident the Cyclones could find an advantage against the Lady Jays.

“We have a couple of fast players on our team that I think we can outrun them with, and I don’t think they know that yet,” Johnson said.

Junior midfielder/defender and fellow team captain Riley Behan said that during training this week, there was a positive atmosphere and an attacking mindset.

“We’ve really been working out some of those kinks that we saw in the exhibition game,” Behan said. “We’re just going to play our game, really.”

Coming off of a widely perceived snub from last year’s NCAA tournament, in which two teams ranked below them in the Big 12 were selected, there is a sense that the Cyclones are looking for redemption this year. Creighton is the first step in that journey.

Iowa State returns key contributors from last year’s team, including their two leading goalscorers from last year, in junior forward Klasey Medelberg and sophomore attacking midfielder Hannah Cade.

The Cyclones will work towards securing their second NCAA Tournament appearance in program history with a defense that only gave up 20 goals in 19 games and an injection of young attacking talent in freshman forwards Kassi Ginther and Courtney Powell. 

Behan was very open with how the team was going to use their snub last year to motivate the team and aim for the tournament this season.

“It gives us a chip on our shoulder and it’s always in the back of our minds,” Behan said. “We want to show people that it wasn’t a fluke last season. We have the talent, we have the personnel.”