The ISU women’s tennis team is headed to Eugene, Ore., for its second-straight weekend of competition. It battles Oregon on Friday morning, and then takes on Montana on Saturday afternoon.

Iowa State is coming off its season-opening weekend that was full of a lot of ups and downs. The Cyclones struggled early on against Arizona State, but ended strongly as it swept Mesa Community College.

The Cyclone women will have to carry over their play against Mesa through to Friday for the dual with Oregon, who has started off the spring season red hot. The Ducks beat Portland State 6-1 in the opener, and then swept the University of Portland two days later.

“We hope to continue to really see where we are as a team. Find things that work, and continue to improve,” said coach Armando Espinosa.

Montana will be used as a benchmark of the Cyclones’ doubles abilities. Montana’s best doubles squad consists of Rebecca Bran and Whitney Paluch, and is the No. 10-ranked duo in the Mountain West. It will be a tough matchup for the Cyclones’ Maria Macedo and Tessa Lang, who lost narrowly in their match in the opener against Arizona State, the No. 20 team in the nation.

The addition of assistant coach Rodrigo Puebla has been interesting for the team. He has a different coaching style than his predecessor Chris Williams. The coaches have been experimenting with new doubles matchups in the opening matches this spring, and fans will likely see more of the same against Oregon and Montana.

“We will keep trying new pairs for doubles,” Espinosa said.

A particularly exciting partnership last week was Jenna Langhorst and Simona Cacciuttolo who picked up a win against UC Davis. Both Langhorst and Cacciuttolo are sophomores, so if they develop a good chemistry they could be very dangerous in years to come. For now, Cacciuttolo is happy just to be playing competitively again.

“I played some tennis at home over break,” Cacciuttolo said. “Then a lot more once we got back and had practice two hours a day. I am really excited to be playing again, it’s fun.”

Singles play should yield some good competition both days. The Cyclones No. 1, Macedo, has impressed so far on the court.

Espinosa said the team is on the right track, they just need to up the intensity, which is part of adjusting from practice to competition pace.

Oregon and Montana will both test the Cyclone women as they continue to improve and hope to be a solid force in the Big 12 this spring.

The players depart early Thursday morning for Oregon. The Oregon match starts at 11 a.m. Friday, while the Montana match kicks off at 3 p.m. Saturday.