After a sluggish first half turned into a 3-0 victory for the Iowa State women’s soccer team against Creighton Friday night, the Cyclones turned their attentions to a challenging early season road game against Missouri on Sunday.

Coach Tony Minatta said that while he was happy with the team’s second half performance, there was room for improvement. 

“Creighton posed some problems in the way they attacked and possessed the ball,” he said. “We definitely need to learn from this and grow from it. We need to understand that although we won 3-0, there were a lot of errors in there and a lot of things we need to do to get better.”

Missouri finished 11-7-2 last season and made it to the first round of the NCAA Tournament, losing 1-0 to Kansas. Missouri was 9-2-0 at home and boasted a +12 overall goal differential. The Tigers won Friday night in their season opener against Illinois by a 3-1 scoreline. 

Minatta said it would be a good test for the team, much like last year’s season opener against Florida. 

“I think it’s great,” Minatta said. “To play against an SEC team is a good chance to see where we’re at. It’s a team we kind of mirrored last season record wise, with similar opponents and similar results in those games, so it’s going to be a great test for us.

“We get to play on the SEC network and we’re excited about that [as well].”

Missouri’s star player is sophomore forward Sarah Luebbert, who led the Tigers with 10 goals last season and won the SEC Freshman of the Year award. In January, she was called up to the U.S. Soccer Women’s Under-23’s training camp. 

Coach Minatta spoke about the threat that Luebbert carries and how the Cyclones plan to counter her on Sunday:

“Sarah’s a great player. She came in and took the SEC by storm,” Minatta said. “We like to defend in numbers, we want to get people behind the ball. We’re gonna make her have to come through at least two to three players before she gets to the goal.”

Sophomore defensive midfielder Carly Langhurst said a nationally televised game against an NCAA tournament team would be good motivation for the Cyclones.

“We should have been in the NCAA tournament last year, and I know that teams that made it who we think we can beat will definitely motivate us,” Langhurst said. “I think it’s a great motivation for us to show what we can do and play strong, play hard, and be there for each other.”

Langhurst, who scored her first career goal on Friday, also commented on where the team can improve on from last season and mentioned that goals would be a big factor.

“If I can do it, anyone can do it,” she said. “I think that getting more goals is what we need this season, last year we didn’t get as many goals as we’d like.”