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Hello folks, I'm not going to pretend to know much of anything about our women's tennis team. I have been looking into it for a little bit because I wanted to write a little on their upcoming season. While I may not be a huge tennis fan they are Cyclones and I am definitely proud of their accomplishments from last season.
ISU women's tennis has been a program that has struggled for a myriad of reasons. However the Cyclones from last year won their first conference match in 85 attempts and their first since 2002. Second year head coach Armando Espinosa got a contract extension and the program may be getting some much needed stability.
Only one athlete graduates, senior Alyssa Palen. They return all of their top singles players and their top two doubles teams. Of their top 6 singles competitors, there wll only be two who are seniors next season (overall #1 Erin Karonis and #6 Liza Wischer) so they should be set up to be competitive again in Big 12 play next season.
After Big 12 opening victories against Mizzou and Colorado they dropped two very close ones against KSU and KU. Then came a brutal stretch of road games where they played 7 of their last 9 on the road. Traveling for olympic sports isn't quite as cushy as it is for football and basketball so you have to think that made a big difference.
Hopefully another year will allow the young ladies a chance to be proud of their accomplishments and build off of them heading into next season. From what I understand tennis usually has a few tournaments in the fall and then the season kicks of for duals in the spring. Good luck next year Cyclones!