Battling some of the Midwest’s top teams and the cool November chill, the ISU tennis team came home from the Western Michigan University Super Challenge with a handful of strong individual performances.

Iowa State began the weekend against the premier squad of the meet, Indiana University. Despite falling in two of three doubles matches as a team, the duo of Erin Karonis and Liza Wischer edged out an 8-5 victory.

Continuing on in doubles play, the women faced off against the combined squad of Louisville and Wisconsin in the second round. The team of Tessa Lang and Maria Fernanda Macedo put on a display of dominance, coming away with an 8-1 win.

Host team Western Michigan was first on the docket for Iowa State in singles competition. Macedo, Karonis and Marie-Christine Chartier each came away with wins in their opening singles bouts, with Karonis convincingly dropping her opponent, 6-1, 6-1.

In their final doubles round of the Challenge, the Cyclones pulled off the upset, topping DePaul in two of three matches. The teams of Macedo and Lang and Chartier and Wischer guided Iowa State with impressive victories.

The Cyclone squad again ran into the buzzsaw that was Indiana. The Hoosiers, this time in round two of the singles, blasted through Iowa State, only dropping one match to Cyclone senior Reka Kelemen.

Round three of the singles bouts saw DePaul aiming for revenge against the Cyclone women. In the final contest of the weekend, the Blue Demons breezed past the women with Nikki Reber being the only Cyclone to pick up a win, 6-1, 6-0.

Despite the rough losses, the ISU women came away from the weekend with an optimistic approach. Many of the losses were tight matches against quality competition that give the team a solid foundation for its winter training.