The ISU women’s tennis team will kick off the 2013 fall season this weekend at the Drake Fall Invitational.

The tournament is the first of six weekend competitions the Cyclones will compete in this fall, in preparation for the spring season.

The fall season is largely a tune-up for the spring season, and Iowa State will use it as such. The goal is to get fully prepared for the spring season by playing several matches and working on various aspects of their game.

A major point of emphasis in the fall season is to see what works and what doesn’t work. The team will be shifting around the singles matchups and the doubles teams to find the best fit for everybody.

The team’s doubles play is something both the players and coach would like to see improvement from.

“I think it’s mostly doubles [that we need to improve on],” said junior Meghan Cassens. “We had a lot of problems with doubles last year and have been practicing doubles play a lot more this year.”

Armando Espinosa, entering his sixth year as the Cyclones’ coach, agrees that doubles play will be a huge factor this season.

“Doubles play is crucial for us,” Espinosa said. “If we start winning the doubles point, it will build momentum and release a lot of pressure on our singles matches and help us win at different spots.”

Iowa State finished 8-15 (1-8 in the Big 12) last season, but the team has higher expectations this season.

After posting a 7-7 record in nonconference play, the team struggled in Big 12 play, which was disappointing to team members.

“We definitely lost some games that we feel like we should have won,” said junior Ksenia Pronina.

The Cyclones felt like they played well last season, despite the poor conference record, citing close matches with Oklahoma, who qualified for the national tournament, and a narrow 4-3 loss to Kansas.

With that in mind, Espinosa has high expectations this season.

“We competed well, it’s just trying to get over that hump and win some more matches,” Espinsoa said. “The expectations are high. We have three freshman coming in that we have a lot of confidence in, and some good returning players as well. So we’re pretty excited about the season.”

The freshmen will get a chance to get their feet wet in the fall matches, and the returning players will have an opportunity to work out some of the rust. The fall season will be a step toward a successful spring, where the team is hoping to finish in the top half of the Big 12.

“It’s a pretty lofty goal for us,” Espinosa said. “But it is not unattainable.”

Each individual can only play so many fall matches, so it will be a rotating cast of players for each tournament, with a only a few tournaments where all the players play.

After the Drake Fall Invitational, the team will play in the Gopher Invitational, UNI Invitational, University of Arizona tournament and ITA Regionals, before concluding the fall season at the Cougar Classic in Houston.