ISU soccer coach Tony Minatta is shaking things up this week after seeing his team fall in three of its last four contests.

The Cyclones are getting back to the basics by training like they did in the preseason, meaning harder, more intense practices. Minatta wanted to break up the typical practice cycle and see if his players would respond.

So far, they have.

“It seems like the mindset is that they want to get things turned around,” Minatta said. “There is definitely a renewed sense of urgency with the team, mentality-wise.”

The Cyclones only have one game on the docket this weekend, instead of the usual two, allowing Minatta to push his team harder than he normally could.

Minatta said the team always seems to start the year strong, so he’s hoping training like it’s the beginning of the year might reinvigorate his players.

The Cyclones downed then-No. 10 ranked Pepperdine on Aug. 30 but have since lost three of four games. Minatta theorized that the team might have grown complacent after scoring the big win.

“We got humbled,” Minatta said. “It’s back to reality and [now] we need to go into each contest with the same determination and confidence level that we did with [Pepperdine] to prove who we are as a team, and that we are capable of being a quality team in the Big 12.”

With a harsher practice regimen this week, Minatta is hoping to provide the spark the team needs. After a rough few weeks, the team welcomed a change of pace.

“I think we’ve had a really good response to that,” said junior Koree Willer. “We just have the one game Sunday, so we’ve been pushing hard these past couple days. We definitely had a tough couple of weeks, but all you can really do is learn from that and move forward.”

The Cyclones next step forward will be a short trip down I-35 to Des Moines, where the team will meet up with in-state rival Drake.

The Iowa State-Drake rivalry is no Cy-Hawk rivalry, but any in-state opponent is considered a rival.

“You want to be the best team in Iowa, so any of these games – Iowa, Drake, [Northern Iowa] – they’re all going to be competitive,” Willer said. “Everyone is trying to prove something.”

The Cyclones are familiar with the Bulldogs. The two teams meet up on the field twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring.

Much of the rivalry comes from the short distance between the two schools, but it’s also a little deeper than that.

“They want to prove something,” Minatta said. “A lot of those players on that team wanted to come here, so they’re out to prove that they’re good enough to play at this level and they have a lot of pride, especially at their home field, so we’re expecting them to come out real hard.”