When Iowa State lost senior center Stephanie Soares to a torn ACL, it was a huge blow.
At six-foot-six, she's the tallest player in college basketball. Pair that with her production down low and that's tough to replace.
However, the team is focusing on how they can make up for that loss. Head coach Bill Fennelly told his team that it was time to move on from the day that he referred to as one of the hardest of his career.
Fennelly also told his team that this is a chance for others to step up and show what they can do.
"The really good players on our team have to play great," Fennelly said. "Some of the kids that have been playing and maybe not producing at the level we need them to have to play better and there's always players that think they should be playing. They're going to get to play."
Morgan Kane, Nyamer Diew and Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw are some of the players they'll be looking to, all of which were a part of a sweet 16 team from last year.
"We realize that there's a lot of games ahead of us still and that we have great opportunities ahead of us," said junior guard Emily Ryan. "Anything can happen, and we did have a good season last year and that's something that we can draw off of."
Iowa State will host Kansas State on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m.
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