This weekend, the Iowa soccer team will play host to two top-40 teams to kick off its season at home.

The Hawkeyes’ first home game will be today, in which they will take on Iowa State.

Iowa defeated the Cyclones last year, 2-0, in Ames, and the Hawkeyes hope for a similar result today.

The match marks the 20th season in program history, and the players are ready to get out on the field in front of their fans.

“I’m pumped,” Karly Stuenkel said. “It’s a rivalry game, it’s our home-opener, I think that a lot of fans are going to be there. We’re all kind of hyped up, and we are going to play really well.”

The Cyclones head into the match with a 1-1 record, and they are coming off a 2-0 loss to Missouri.

After the Iowa State game, the Iowa will take on Notre Dame on Aug. 27, which comes into this weekend with a 1-0-1 record and is ranked No. 18 in the nation.

Knowing that the Hawkeyes would match up against the Fighting Irish, Hawkeye coach Dave DiIanni scheduled a spring game against them to prepare his team.

“That [spring game] helped our kids to know that [Notre Dame] is a high-level program,” coach DiIanni said. “But if you play well and compete and you’re organized, you can be in any game in the game of soccer. I think that helped take away some of that mythical image that Notre Dame has.”

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Notre Dame and the Hawkeyes have met only one other time, in a 2013 game that the Irish won, 4-1, in South Bend, Indiana.

The Hawkeyes are coming off a 5-1 win in their season-opener on Sunday against Richmond, in which all the Hawkeyes’ goals were scored by sophomores.

“I think it’s great,” said sophomore Natalie Winters, who had 3 assists Sunday. “Coming from spring of last year, I think we’ve improved so much. We just want everybody to get on the ball and everybody to do great, [and] I think it was a great atmosphere to score a lot of goals.”

Winters and the rest of the Hawkeyes hope that last weekend’s success will continue this weekend against two tougher opponents.

The Cy-Hawk matchup will kick off at 7:30 p.m. today, while kickoff for the Notre Dame match will be at 2 p.m. Aug. 27.

“We’re all really excited and we’re all getting prepared for it [this weekend],” Winters said. “I think our mental toughness is going to be a huge thing. Coming from last year, we always trailed off usually. I think this year, we’re working on that and working on competing throughout the game. I think we’re ready, and all going to do really good, and we’re going to get the win.”