The ISU women’s tennis team failed to break its losing streak this weekend, falling to Big 12 foe Missouri 6-1 and to Murray State 4-3.

The weekend was not a total loss, though.

Iowa State’s No. 1 singles player Jill Palen came away with a victory, defeating Missouri’s No. 1 singles player, Katka Sevcikova.

Sevcikova defeated the nation’s No. 19 singles player Gitte Ostermann on Feb. 12.

Palen won in two sets, outscoring Sevcikova 7-5, 6-4.

She said without an element of strategy, she could have lost.

“I had played her before and lost; I tried to remember back to that match so I could have an idea of what to do going in,” Palen said. “I played aggressive and played to win.”

Palen said a disappointing showing against Murray State motivated her to come out strong against Missouri.

“[Against Murray State] I played not to lose. I didn’t go after my shots and was really tentative,” she said.

“I knew that if I was going to beat [Sevcikova], I was going to have to play to win and really take it to her.”

Palen said Iowa State could have won a lot of its matches in recent weeks if it could have closed off the close points.

Teammate Beth Chermel said the match was a huge win for Palen.

“It’s pretty amazing to be able to say you defeated the player who just upset the No. 19 ranked player in the nation,” Chermel said.

Chermel said the matches against Murray State were all close, but the Cyclones couldn’t finish them off. She said the Racers had many different “game styles” that worked to their benefit.

“They were very scrappy,” Chermel said. “Instead of hitting clean balls, they would just return everything, and you never knew what kind of ball was going to get thrown back at you.”

Freshman Caitlin Loprinzi said her improvement showed against Missouri. Loprinzi, playing in the No. 2 spot for Iowa State, lost in three sets to sophomore Yelena Olshanskaya.

Olshanskaya won the first set 6-1, but Loprinzi battled back to take the second set 6-3.

“[Olshanskaya] played really well and really strong,” Loprinzi said.

“She really stepped up her game in the third set and finished off well.”

Olshanskaya won that set 6-2 to take the match.