The ISU tennis team came close to ending its losing streak this weekend, but it fell short and extended the streak to five.

“I was proud of how we competed,” said coach Armando Espinosa. “I wish the match would have gone our way, but it didn’t, so we just have to learn from it and keep going forward.”

On Saturday, the team fell to Illinois-Chicago 5-2. Junior Jenna Langhorst picked up her first singles victory of the season, and freshman Ksenia Pronina tallied her third win in a row.

Pronina’s play against the Flames (3-3) was encouraging, especially when she rallied from losing the first set 6-2 to win the next two 6-1 and 6-3.

The Cyclones kept almost all of the matches close, with the doubles team of Langhorst and Maria Fernanda Macedo fell short of victory in an 8-7(5) loss.

A few players came within two or three points of a win in their first sets but lost the next set either 6-1 or 6-0. The pressure of the losing streak may have been the cause.

“There’s always pressure to win, but also since we haven’t been winning, it’s a little discouraging and we want to win finally,” said freshman Meghan Cassens.

The Cyclones came even closer to winning Sunday, dropping a 4-3 heartbreaker to the rival Hawkeyes (3-0). Cassens said the team had a higher level of intensity last weekend, especially against Iowa.

Once again, the team didn’t win the doubles point and it could have made the difference in the match. The team of Simona Cacciuttolo and Pronina came closest, losing their match 8-4.

Senior Marie-Christine Chartier and Cassens won their third singles matches of the season.

Falling behind has been a common theme for the team this season, but Cassens doesn’t think it causes the team to lose hope that it can win.

“We have proved to ourselves that we have been able to be down before and come back and win the matches,” Cassens said. “In a lot of the matches we have played, we have been able to come back from being down a set.”