The Iowa State Cyclones softball team represents

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

(ISU) and competes in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

. The team is coached by Jamie Pinkerton, he is in his 5th year at Iowa State. The Cyclones play their home games at the Cyclone Sports Complex on Iowa State's campus.

History

The Cyclones had put together a women's softball team by 1971 and appeared in two of the early

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

in 1971 and 1973. In 1971 the Cyclones advanced to the championship final series against John F. Kennedy College, before bowing out with two losses, 6-0 and 4-0. In 1974, under coach Gloria Crosby, the team got off to a strong start, winning two Big Eight Championships in four years. Iowa State continued their strong start into the 1980s under Head Coach Deb Kuhn. In 1987 the Cyclones made their first ever appearance in the Top 20 culminating in Coach Kuhn being named Big Eight Coach of the Year. The following year Iowa State made their first run in program history in the NCAA Tournament. The transition from the Big Eight to the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

has proved difficult for the Cyclones. The team has not won more than six conference games in any season since joining the conference. The most wins overall in a single season since the start of the Big 12 is 29. Jamie Trachsel was the coach of the Cyclones for the 2017 season. She led them to a 23-35 overall record and their best conference standing since 1994. At the conclusion of the season she left the Cyclones to coach the Minnesota Gophers. The team is currently coached by Jamie Pinkerton, he is in his 5th year at Iowa State.

Record

Individual accomplishments

Olympians

All-Americans

Facilities

The Cyclones play their home games at the $13 million Cyclone Sports Complex that opened in 2012. Some of the state-of-the-art facility's amenities are home and away locker rooms, officials' locker rooms, team meeting rooms, athletic training room, and a seating capacity of 1,500.

References

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