The ISU tennis team faces Iowa on Jan. 26 to kick off the spring season with a rivalry dual meet.

Iowa State returns with a renewed sense of the game after competing Jan. 19-20 in many matches as part of the Florida Gulf Invitational. The Cyclones will now begin to focus on more traditional matches in the regular season.

“I think [we are in a good place] after the way we practiced and with us coming from quite a bit of energy from the weekend,” said ISU coach Armando Espinosa. “The purpose of the weekend was to get some matches under our belt.”

The Cyclones lost to Iowa last year in a tight a 4-3 contest. Iowa State hopes to finish with more wins to clinch a victory and add some points for the Cy-Hawk Series.

“We are pretty excited about that opportunity for us to start competing as a team and to face a good opponent like they are,” Espinosa said.

Sophomore Caroline Hauge Andersen is looking forward to facing Iowa because this is the first chance she will get to play against them.

“I think we have a good chance of doing well. We just need to go out there and do the best we can do and keep the energy up and the effort up,” Andersen said.

Andersen will no longer be struggling with an injury this meet, saying that she “feels good” and is “back in business.”

Espinosa is happy with the way the team practiced this week and is eager to try out the double pairs after a strong showing by Iowa State’s doubles teams at its opening invitational.

“We worked on some doubles and some double combinations, and everyone came here with lots of energy and ready to go,” Espinosa said. “I am very, very happy with the way things are going.”

Ksenia Pronina hopes to see another strong day for doubles against Iowa. A good doubles start will be important to keep energy and morale up.

“I think that the most important thing is that we go out there with high energy and try to be aggressive in doubles and try to win the doubles points so we get off to a good start,” Pronina said.