The ISU tennis team continued its fall season last weekend when it traveled to Evanston, Ill., to compete against a strong 11-team field at the Wildcat Invitational.

The three-day tournament saw the Cyclones get plenty of individual match experience in a competitive atmosphere.

“It was a great tournament for us to play in because it was a very high level tournament in terms of competition,” said coach Michele Conlon. “We also got the chance to play a lot of matches, which is exactly what we want to do at this point in the season.”

The tournament was a chance for individuals to play each other, and did not have an individual winner or a team winner.

Notable highlights from the weekend included senior Danielle Uscinski, who notched a challenging three-set singles victory against Kim Roberts of Wisconsin.

After winning the first set 6-4, Uscinski relinquished her lead and dropped the second set 5-7 while playing in near darkness outside.

The match was then moved indoors, where Uscinski overcame the tough second-set loss by never letting her opponent get back into the game.

She closed out the match with a strong 6-0 third-set victory.

On Sunday, junior Chrissy DeRouin battled for a three-set victory against DePaul’s Anja Mihaldinec (7-5, 4-6, 7-6), in a draining marathon match that took more than three hours to complete.

“There’s so many good things you can pull out of a three-hour match,” Conlon said. “It’s like winning a football game in double or triple overtime, where it’s nice to gain confidence and know you have what it takes to win tough matches like that.”

Conlon is pleased with the team’s current progress, and thinks the team is further along at this point in the season than it was in 2005.

“The team played much better overall this year in this tournament than last year,” Conlon said. “I think a lot of it is due to senior leadership. We now have some experience from people who competed last year, and they are all very poised and know how to go from experience to close things out and get the job done.”

The Cyclones hope to build on the experience from this tough tournament when they head to Columbia, Mo., for the four-team Missouri Tournament this weekend.