In their final game of the season, it took the full 90 minutes for the Cyclones (7-11, 1-7 Big 12) to break through the wall and win their first Big 12 game of the season against Texas Christian 1-0 on Oct. 31.

After multiple near-goals for both teams, Iowa State got their final chance with 30 seconds left on the clock on a corner kick, and the Cyclones were finally able to capitalize.

Maribell Morales sent in the corner kick to Haley Albert who found Koree Willer. She then dropped it off to Adalie Schmidt for the game-winning goal.

“It’s interesting because we’ve seen [Morales] take those corner kicks all year and put them in,” said ISU coach Tony Minatta.

“She’s had some opportunities to take corners this season, and she hasn’t hit them as well as she hit that one or like we’ve seen her in practice. Albert was on the back post and [Morales] got her the ball, and she was able to keep it alive, and everyone was able to fight and scrum it out.”

There’s no doubt about it — this season has been a frustrating one for the Cyclones. The Cyclones competed well with almost every team but were never able to quite pull out the win.

That finally changed against TCU.

“It’s just nice because we’ve worked really hard all season and just got no lucky breaks it seemed like,” Schmidt said.

While the Cyclones’ season is now over as they have already been eliminated from playoff contention, the win was still an important one for the team as they set their sights on the future.

“I think it’s really good just to establish ourselves and know that what we are doing in practice will transfer over in games, and we just need to keep with that through the spring season, and I think [winning tonight] was essential for us moving forward,” Willer said.

After so many close losses throughout the season, the team had hit a wall. This win in their final game of the season and in the dramatic fashion that they won may have finally broken through that wall.

“We needed that confidence booster, and we needed a game like this to let them know that they can do it and that the hard work does pay off,” Minatta said. “We have been working really hard, and we weren’t getting the results, and you start getting frustrated and thinking it’s not going to happen but for this to happen in our last game, now we’re going into the spring with a lot of confidence and building towards that 2015 year.”