The ISU tennis team’s win over Colorado on Sunday in Boulder was the Cyclones’ first Big 12 road victory since 1997. The win was also Armando Espinosa’s fourth Big 12 victory as the Cyclones’ coach.

The Cyclones won the match against the Buffaloes 5-2.

“If we want to be a competitive program in the Big 12, it’s going to come at some point,” Espinosa said. “Our student athletes are starting to believe that we can compete no matter who we play in the Big 12.”

Espinosa said that since he started coaching here, they have been closing the gaps with certain teams in the Big 12.

“I think the mentality and the culture of the team is slowly getting a little bit more competitive,” Espinosa said.

This isn’t the first year that the Cyclones snapped a streak under Espinosa. Last year, the team won its first Big 12 match since 2002.

“We didn’t realize that it was such a big win because we won against Colorado last year,” said junior Maria Macedo. “We didn’t think that because we were away that it would change anything.”

Macedo defeated Abbie Probert from Colorado in two straight sets 6-3, 6-0 at the No. 2 singles spot Sunday.

The Cyclones played outdoors in Colorado and again were forced to adapt to chilly and windy conditions. The Cyclones had seemingly no troubles doing that.

“I don’t know if there’s one thing that we did better than they did,” Espinosa said. “Overall we were just more consistent than they were and we got our points that way.”

Senior Erin Karonis, freshman Simona Cacciuttolo and senior Liza Wischer also notched singles victories at the meet.

Macedo and Tessa Lang won at the No. 1 doubles spot and Karonis and Cacciuttolo won at the No. 2 doubles spot securing the doubles point for the Cyclones.

The Cyclones return to action this weekend hosting the Kansas Jayhawks at 2:30 p.m. Friday and the Kansas State Wildcats at noon Sunday.