Thursday night, the Cyclones played a total of 108 minutes when they hosted Texas Tech. Iowa State and Texas Tech went into a double overtime match, which was two minutes away from ending in a draw without taking Tech’s game winning goal in account.

Tech fired a total of 28 shots and had 13 corner kicks, keeping the Cyclone defense busy all throughout the 108 minutes of play.

A similar sight was seen during the Cyclones game against the Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs on Sunday.

Much like Texas Tech, the TCU attack kept the Cyclone defense busy all game. The Horned Frogs recorded a total of 27 shots and were rewarded 11 corner kicks.

Taking in consideration just how much the Cyclones had to play on Thursday against Tech, there were questions if working double overtime against Tech had any lingering effects on the Cyclones, especially coming into a game where they had to face another attack-heavy team like TCU.

“I think you play a game like that and it does take its physical toll, but it also takes a mental toll to go 108 minutes and give that game winning goal up at the very end,” coach Tony Minatta said.

TCU set the tone in the first half. During the first half, the Horned Frogs fired 14 of their 27 shots and took seven of their 11 corners.

The Horned Frogs missed out on multiple scoring opportunities and kept Iowa State’s freshman goalkeeper Georgia Wimmer on her toes.

Wimmer recorded four saves during the first half, including a sequence where she made a diving save and made a second just seconds after the diving save — stopping two TCU shot opportunities from point blank range in front of the goal.

While Wimmer and the defense managed to hold TCU scoreless through the first half, they were unable to maintain a similar performance during the second half, in large part due to TCU’s Gracie Brian.

“We came back, second half was strong and obviously they came back stronger too, being tied,”  junior defender Shea Sullivan said. “When we went up, we just relaxed a little bit and just didn’t give it everything that we had.”

Brian headed in a ball in the 62nd minute, which was the equalizer to the Cyclones goal scored barely 10 minutes before by Courtney Powell.

Brian scored again in the 74th minute when she fired off a shot just outside the 18-yard box which got past a diving Wimmer, giving TCU the 2-1 lead.

Of course when a team struggles with stopping an opposing attack, they struggle with starting an attack of their own. This was the problem for the Cyclones during Sunday.

While TCU managed 14 first half shots and 13 second half shots for a total of 27 shots, the Cyclones were only able to get two shots in the first half and five shots in the second half for a total of seven shots.

While one of the seven shots translated to a goal, there weren’t as many opportunities for the Cyclones to answer back with.

“I kind of thought we started off not our best but came out the start of the second half really strong I thought,” Powell said. “I think we maybe got too comfortable with a 1-0 lead.”

The Cyclones have a couple of days to prepare before taking off to Manhattan, Kansas, on Oct. 11 to play Kansas State.