After weathering a tough field in last weekend’s Wildcat Tournament at Northwestern, the ISU tennis team will switch focus to a smaller, but still competitive, tournament hosted by the University of Missouri this weekend.

The field consists of Iowa State, Illinois State, Wichita State, Saint Louis and Missouri. Although the skill level of these teams is somewhat lower than what the team saw last weekend, the team still expects to encounter some tough competition in Columbia, Mo.

Illinois State and Wichita State are two Missouri Valley teams that expect to be rivaling for a conference championship this spring.

Missouri, a common Big 12 opponent, should also provide some challenging matches for the Cyclones.

The tournament will be played in a mock dual format, where Iowa State will eventually play each team twice during the weekend.

Each school will finish the weekend after playing five doubles and three singles matches.

The Cyclones are hoping to build off the successes they had last weekend and are working hard to improve all aspects of their game.

“In general, we are working on being more aggressive in doubles play and have been concentrating on developing individual aspects of our game as far as singles,” said coach Michele Conlon.

Conlon sees significant improvement at this point of the season from last year, and believes the experience the team has gained against strong competition so far this season will be extremely beneficial coming into this weekend.

“It’s good for them to go out and work on different parts of their game over the course of the fall, and they also have the opportunity to take some chances because the stakes aren’t so high,” she said. “It’s nice to see them learning about themselves, so they can figure out what things are working best for them and help them play at the highest possible level as the season goes on.”

Sophomore Kara Hickey, a native of Columbia, Mo., returns to her hometown hoping to improve on the success she had in this tournament last fall. Hickey won two singles matches and four doubles matches throughout the course of the three-day event in 2005.

This is the final tournament the team will play in this fall before competing in the regional tournament from Oct. 18 to 22 in Tulsa, Okla.