For the ISU women’s tennis team, the weekend brings some daunting matchups.

First, the team will face No. 19 Texas Tech (16-4, 6-1 Big 12), which leads the conference. Then it will take on the team that has won six straight Big 12 tournament championships, along with seven consecutive regular season championships, the No. 13 Baylor Bears (20-6, 5-2).

However tough the odds are, the Cyclones are not backing down.

“Texas Tech and Baylor will be tough, but it’s one of those things where we have nothing to lose,” said ISU coach Armando Espinosa. “We can play as loose as we want and hopefully prepare for the Big 12 Tournament.

“To beat them we just need to play with no fear, just try to come out and fight. Kansas lost to Baylor 4-3, and Baylor beat Kansas State 4-3 so we’re right there, it’s just a matter of believing in that.”

The ISU players emphasized how important it is to come out strong against both teams.

“We need to come out as strong as we possibly can, even coming out a little bit soft is going to be tough for us,” said ISU freshman Meghan Cassens. “We just need to come out really strong and play like we did this weekend.”

Along with coming out strong, the players also stressed consistency as a key to focus on this weekend.

“We’re going to have to be really consistent because these teams just don’t miss,” said ISU senior Marie-Christine Chartier. “And just kind of accept the fact that we might be out there for hours, but don’t give them too much respect, don’t go out there thinking, ‘well, they’re so good we have no chance.’ Because we do, we just have to be really consistent and fight like crazy.”

The Cyclones have had lots of close matches this season and Espinosa thinks the team has learned from each match and improved, especially from its most recent match, a 6-1 victory against Kansas.

“The win against KU is going to help us propel ourselves a little bit more,” Espinosa said. “We’ve had probably six 4-3 matches when we’ve been close and hopefully that will show up. If we can fight a little bit better, then the scores will come.”

The Cyclones will face Texas Tech at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Lubbock, Texas, and Baylor at 5 p.m. on Monday in Waco, Texas. The matches will conclude Big 12 regular season play for Iowa State.