The ISU women’s tennis team finished off its fall season last weekend with a combination of successes and failures on the courts at the 2004 Lloyd Stokstad Invitational in Des Moines.

“Everybody won some matches, and everybody lost some matches,” head coach Michele Conlon said.

The three-day tournament featured singles and doubles play with competition from Iowa State, Drake, Missouri, Northern Colorado and Northern Iowa.

Freshman Caitlin Loprinzi wrapped up the first day of competition by winning both of her singles matches, securing her a spot in the next day’s action.

“Caitlin was outstanding,” Conlon said.

“She played with as much heart and guts as anyone can play with. She plays with so much enthusiasm, you can never count her out of a match.”

Loprinzi said she didn’t feel any pressure.

“I wasn’t supposed to win, so I was loose,” she said. “I played a good match, and it was close the whole time.”

The fact that the tournament was the last competition of the fall for Loprinzi and the rest of the Cyclones played a role in her performance, Loprinzi said.

“I guess in the back of my head, I was thinking this is the last time,” Loprinzi said.

“I wanted to end it on a good note.”

Loprinzi finished her bid for a singles championship Saturday, losing in two sets to Drake’s number-one netter Zorana Stefanovic.

But Saturday’s loss wasn’t the end of Loprinzi’s fall season — Loprinzi paired up with sophomore Jill Palen on Sunday and took third place in the A flight with a 9-7 victory over Drake duo Stefanovic and Allison Wilkie.

“We played really well,” Loprinzi said. “We had a lot of energy, and we were having a lot of fun. We were just having a good time out there.”

The victory over the pair of Bulldogs was important to Conlon and her Cyclones because Loprinzi and Palen had lost to the same duo earlier this season at the Gopher Invitational in Minneapolis.

“Anytime you can do that, it’s a good thing,” Conlon said.

“It shows improvement and competitiveness, and it encourages hard work going into the off-season.”

ISU sophomore Danielle Uscinski paired up with freshman Chrissy Derouin to take fourth place in the B flight of Sunday’s competition, losing to a duo from the University of Northern Iowa 8-4.

Conlon said that this weekend’s tournament set a good tone for the Cyclones’ two-month offseason.