A first-round loss in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Central Regional Tournament wrapped up the fall season for the ISU women’s tennis team.

The University of Utah hosted the ITA Central Regional Tournament in Salt Lake City on Oct. 19 to 23.

Coach Michele Conlon said she was satisfied with the Cyclones’ performance, however, the team faced some losses during their last tournament of the fall season.

“I don’t think a coach or a student athlete is ever satisfied with a loss, but at the same time the team played extremely well this fall. There were tough rounds and tough draws, but the team gave great effort,” Conlon said.

The Cyclones sent junior Jill Palen as an automatic qualifier to compete in the main draw of the tournament.

Senior Elizabeth Chermel, junior Danielle Uscinski and freshman Kara Hickey competed on Oct. 19 in the qualifying round.

In order to move on to the main draw, the players had to win two matches in the qualifying round. The three Cyclone players failed to do so.

Chermel won her first match in the qualifying round against Mari Castello of Montana, 6-1, 6-2. She was then defeated in the second match against the No. 1 seed Annette Aksdal of Denver, 6-1, 7-6, (3).

Aksdal, who is from Norway, placed first in singles and doubles at the Norwiegan National Championship.

Uscinski started out strong in the qualifying round defeating Montana State’s Nicole Luetolf, 6-3, 6-4. During her second match, she lost to sophomore Lucy Scott of New Mexico, 6-4, 6-1. Scott is ranked No. 15 in doubles in the fall central region. She also won the flight three singles title at the Air Force Invitational.

Hickey lost her first match in the qualifying round against No. 1 seed Veera Nurmi, sophomore for Colorado.

Last year, Nurmi became the first freshman to lead Colorado in singles victories since 1999-2000. Nurmi had 20 singles victories.

Hickey and Chermel teamed up together to compete for doubles. Their fall record for playing doubles was 10-2 going into the tournament. They were defeated playing Nebraska’s Pamela Castillejos and Ellinor Zugner in a round of 64 play.

The Cyclones were defeated 9-7 in doubles play.

Castillejos, who hails from Mexico, and Zugner, a Swede, defeated three conference opponents in the regional competition.

Palen had a tough match on Saturday against Brigham Young’s Dolly Chang. She played a close game but came out on bottom, 6-7(5), 6-1, 11-9.

“I was definitely a little disappointed because the match was really close,” Palen said.

“We had a really good fall season even though we didn’t end on a good note,” she said.

The Cyclones will spend their three-month off-season training.

“I definitely think we are a stronger team than last year and we have some good chances for some upsets in the spring that I am pretty excited about,” Conlon said.