Not even the emotions of Senior Day could help the ISU tennis team win its first conference meet in five years.

In both of their weekend meets, the Cyclones were swept, 7-0, by the Colorado Buffaloes and the Missouri Tigers. The scores mark the fifth and sixth consecutive meets in which they have been shut out.

“You can’t always control wins and losses,” coach Michele Conlon said. “They just have to do what they can control – such as running down balls, practice hard – and eventually the wins will come.”

The score may not reflect it, but the Cyclones’ contest against the Buffaloes featured some bursts of intense competition. The Friday night meet did not start out well, as the Cyclones were easily defeated in their doubles matches by scores of 8-0, 8-2 and 8-2.

Although the Cyclones were swept in doubles, they did not let their performance affect their singles play. In two matches, a tiebreaker was necessary to decide the first set.

Freshman Erin Karonis was the first Cyclone to force a tiebreaker when she took on Monica Milewski. Karonis lost the set 7-6 and would ultimately lose the match when she fell, 6-1, in the second set. The second tiebreaker ended in a Colorado victory as well when Gleisy Torres was able defeat senior Caitlin Loprinzi, 7-6, 6-3.

The Cyclones’ best match of the day belonged to Kara Hickey. After losing her first set 6-3, the junior from Columbia, Mo., fought back to win the team’s only set of the day by a score of 6-4. The match would end up going to Colorado when her opponent Camila Belassi won the third and final set, 6-2. Belassi clinched the win for the Buffaloes, improving their record to 8-10, 5-3 Big 12.

After honoring seniors Chrissy Derouin and Loprinzi with a poignant pre-game ceremony, the Cyclones took on the Tigers on Saturday afternoon.

Once again, the Cyclones remained close but were never able to pull out the victory.

In doubles play, Missouri’s team of Kaitlin Dunham and Sofia Ayala initially jumped out to an early 7-2 lead over Derouin and Karonis. Slowly but surely, Iowa State’s team was able to battle back to tie the score at 7-7 before eventually losing the tiebreaker.

Determined to send the seniors out on a positive note, the Cyclones fought hard in each of their singles matches. Karonis, Hickey, and Loprinzi were all able to play a third set, but none were able to come away with a victory.

Conlon said the seniors deserved to come out with a win but had nothing to be ashamed of in the loss.

“It would have been great to win this for them – there is no question about that, but they should have nothing to hang their heads about,” Conlon said. “The last four years, they poured their heart and soul into this program, and that is all you can ask from them. “

The win moved the Tigers record to 4-12, 2-7 Big 12. With the loss, the Cyclones record dropped to 4-12, 0-9 Big 12, and extended their conference losing streak to 64 matches.