Iowa State women’s tennis coach Armando Espinosa got what he wanted.

After a 6–8 combined doubles record at the Gopher and Drake Invitationals a month ago, Espinosa has been preaching the importance of doubles play to his team in the last month of practice and it paid off as the team went 11–4 in doubles play at the Jayhawk Invitational.

“No doubt about it, we got much better at doubles,” Espinosa said.

The doubles performance this weekend was good news for the Cyclones as they will get a final fall tune-up in two weeks at the Western Michigan Invitational.

Espinosa saw great chemistry between a few doubles pairs that may be playing together the rest of the season.

“We are starting to get a better idea of who will be playing [with whom] this season,” Espinosa said.

Highlighting doubles play for Iowa State were the pairs of sophomores Tessa Lang with Maria Fernanda Macedo and junior Liza Wischer with senior Alyssa Palen. Both pairs went a perfect 3–0 on the weekend with Lang and Macedo dropping only four total games in their three matches.

In singles competition at Kansas, junior Reka Kelemen lead the Cyclones with a 4–0 record capturing the A-Flight Singles Title. Kelemen impressed Espinosa with her tough victory in her final match against Kansas State‘s Carmen Borau Ramos.

“She went out and lost 6–0, but she came back and started making shots which caught her opponent off guard,” Espinosa said. “She competed all the way to the end.”

Kelemen won the second set 6–1 and then completed the victory with a 10–5 win in the tiebreaker.

The only one of the 11 girls on the tennis team not at the Jayhawk Invitational was junior Erin Karonis, who traveled to the ITA Regional Championships in Norman, Okla.

Karonis lost her first match 6–3, 6–4 to Tulsa’s Anastasia Erofeeva, but bounced back with a win over Big 12 opponent Nebraska’s Abby Buxton, 6–4, 6–1. Karonis was eliminated from the consolation bracket on Friday with a loss to Tulsa’s Jie Zeng 6–4, 6–3.

“She lost two very close matches that could have went her way,” Espinosa said.

Having won 66 of 108 matches so far this season, Espinosa has been pleased with his team’s performance and looks forward to its fall finale in two weeks at Western Michigan.

“Anytime your [winning percentage is] above .500 is great,” Espinosa said. “Every tournament we have made improvements and with 100 matches under our belt we have confidence going into the spring.”