After a week away from the ballpark, ISU softball is primed and ready to take the field against in-state foe, Northern Iowa.

The last time the Cyclones played a game was the weekend of March 21 against the South Dakota and Miami of Ohio. Both were doubleheaders.

During the doubleheader against South Dakota, the Cyclones earned the sweep with an 11-10 win in the first game and a 6-5 win in the second. The Cyclones did not fare as well as they did against South Dakota in the March 22 doubleheader against Miami of Ohio, dropping both games by scores of 9-4 and 5-3.

Since then, the Cyclones have had a week to straighten out the areas of improvement that need to be fixed before the UNI game. One of the areas of improvement that the Cyclones have been focusing on is securing ground balls and not letting them get past them.

“We have been taking a lot of ground balls this week,” said senior shortstop Lexi Slater. “When pitching has not been doing well, we have to back them by securing those ground balls, which we have not been doing.”

The Cyclones have certainly focused on that area as each infielder and outfielder has stayed after practice this past week and made sure that they secured more than 100 ground balls.

Helping out pitchers has not been the only focus for the past week, however. The Cyclones have also zeroed in on their hitting.

“We are a talented team, but we need to bring our hitting to every game,” said coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. “We did great against South Dakota in that area, but against Miami we fell off, so it is a reminder to us to bring our hitting.”

With a week off, several Cyclones were also allowed time to get healthy once again.

“We took some time off,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “It is a long season, but this certainly came at a good time — right before conference play.”

As the Cyclones prepare to face their first in-state game of the season, they look to avenge their loss from the fall against the Panthers.

“It should be an exciting game tomorrow and hopefully we can get a big win,” said freshman outfielder Kelsey McFarland.

The Cyclones will try to get the win as they take on the Panthers at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Cyclone Sports Complex.