After spending the last month on the road, the ISU women’s tennis team was just glad to be home.

Friday’s match against the University of Illinois at Chicago was even relocated to Ames just so there would be a home game. With that in mind, the Cyclones topped the reigning Horizon League champs 6-1.

Juniors Jill Palen and Eve Soriano won their doubles match 9-7 and senior Elizabeth Chermel and freshman Kara Hickey won their doubles match 9-8 (7-3), winning the tiebreaker and locking up the doubles point for the Cyclones.

The extended doubles matches had no effect on the singles play, however. Palen cruised for her first win of the season, 6-3, 6-1, in a match that lasted less than two hours.

Soriano put away her match just as easily, 6-3, 6-2, for her second win of the season. Junior Danielle Uscinski and sophomore Chrissy Derouin also picked up their first wins of the season in singles play.

Hickey defeated Horizon League Player of the Week Callan Smith in three sets. Hickey lost the first set, but was able to capitalize on Smith’s number of unforced errors and dominate the match to take the last two sets for a final score of 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.

The tennis team carried some momentum from the victory into their Saturday match with Drake, winning a close contest 4-3 in Des Moines.

Derouin and Uscinski picked up their fourth doubles win of the season, 8-3. The tandem was able to adjust to Drake duo Irina Kalashnikova and Eveline Rusdianto’s technique of coming to the net, lobbing drop shots that fell in for points.

Hickey and Chermel got their third doubles win of the season, 8-3. The duo showed a flowing chemistry from the confidence of Friday’s win and were the only doubles team to repeat wins this weekend.

Uscinski quickly disposed of Bulldog Kari Sloboth for a straight-set 6-3, 6-3 win. Playing in front of family this weekend helped the Arizona native tremendously.

“My sister flew in from Boston this weekend,” Uscinski said. “She’s my good luck charm.”

Uscinski added that it is always nice to play in front of a friendly crowd and atmosphere, something the team has not had for awhile.

Soriano defeated Drake’s Allison Wilkie in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, for her third win of the season. Soriano had few unforced errors, and combined with her powerful ground strokes, it would have been difficult for Wilkie to make a run on her.

Hickey put the exclamation mark on the weekend with the contest’s clinching point in her win over Kalashnikova 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Hickey was tripped up in the second set after easily taking the first, but regained dominance of the match in the third set.

The wins didn’t shock anyone, however.

“I was expecting grinding matches,” Soriano said. “They were both good teams, and we knew we had to step it up – especially on Friday when we have class, and then all of a sudden we have a match. But we had good attitudes this weekend, and we were mentally prepared.”

The Cyclones are now 2-4 on the season and will return to conference play March 10 against Colorado in Ames.