The ISU tennis team was unable to score a single point this weekend and failed to snap its 42-game conference losing streak, losing 7-0 to both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Junior Eve Soriano fought the toughest match against No. 59 Oklahoma State, losing a three-set match to Jessica Collins. Soriano was trailing 4-1 before rallying to take the first set 6-4. Collins came back to grab the second set 6-4 and took the tiebreaker 10-4 to win the match.

“I think it was more mental than anything,” Soriano said. “When you are leading, you can tend to get ahead of yourself. I was thinking about winning the match [as] opposed to thinking about it point by point. I got hard on myself, and she started playing better to take the match.”

The Cyclones fought to claim the doubles’ point, but Oklahoma State proved too gritty.

Kara Hickey and Elizabeth Chermel lost to Iryna Tkachenko and Marta Tsvika 9-7, and Chrissy Derouin and Danielle Uscinski lost also, 8-6.

Prior to defeating the Cyclones on Saturday, Oklahoma State had not won a home conference match this season. ISU coach Michele Conlon said that fact could have been misleading.

“Oklahoma State was extremely tough and very consistent,” Conlon said.

“It didn’t help that we didn’t get off to a good start and were down right off the bat.”

Junior Jill Palen’s match seemed quite familiar as she faced her opponent, Tkachenko, last season, as well.

Tkachenko beat her 6-0, 6-0 last season. The familiarity did not aid Palen this time around, and she dropped the match 6-1, 6-0 to Tkachenko.

The action on Sunday would not prove to be as fierce as was the case last weekend against Kansas.

Hickey’s match reflected Soriano’s match from the previous day, as Hickey took the first set 6-2, but lost the last two sets 6-2 and 7-5.

Uscinski and Chermel were not in the lineups, which forced the rest of the team to move up two spots from normal.

Sophomore Caitlin Loprinzi played in the No. 3 spot, up from her normal No. 5 spot. Loprinzi dropped her fourth match in a row 6-1, 6-3.

Senior Charlotte Ljungkrantz made just her second start of the season playing in the No. 5 spot, but lost 6-0, 6-1.

“Uscinski had been struggling, which didn’t help our case especially since [her opponent] was playing well,” Conlon said. “There were a couple instances of bad matchups. We put forth the effort – OU was just good.”

So good, in fact, that Oklahoma’s star freshman, Gabby Baker, defeated Palen on the No. 1 court, 6-0, 6-0.

The tennis team has lost its previous six matches of the season. The Cyclones wait to face Missouri on Friday for their final home conference matchup of the season before the Big 12 Championships.