The Cyclones traveled to Lawrence, Kan., this weekend as they tried to pick up their first conference win, but came away empty handed as they were defeated by both Kansas and Kansas State.

The pair of matches wrapped up a month-long road swing in which Iowa State went 3-4 with wins against Northern Colorado, Grand Canyon and St. Louis. The Cyclones played both weekend matches outside, losing the match Saturday to Kansas 5-2 with singles victories by senior Sabrina Evers and sophomore Charlotte Ljungkrantz. The Cyclone netters returned to action Sunday, losing to Kansas State 6-1 with the only point being scored by Ljungkrantz during singles action.

“The weather was a little windy on Saturday and beautiful on Sunday,” head coach Michele Conlon said. “But I don’t think that it affected the outcomes of the matches.”

Freshman Jill Palen and sophomore Beth Chermel fought tough against Kansas State, only to lose their singles matches in three sets.

“Jill battled extremely hard,” Conlon said.

“But she does that day in and day out during competition as well as practice. Beth went and worked on her game in between matches. Both are working hard and feeling good about their strokes.”

Although the Cyclones dropped two more matches, the bright spot was Ljungkrantz who, although plagued by an injury, won a pair of singles matches, improving to 14-10 overall on the season. Ljungkrantz was also named the team’s Player of the Week for her performance over the weekend.

“Charlotte did an outstanding job,” Conlon said.

“She barely practiced all week due to injury, and she came out in her first match being down 4-2 against Kansas, and she battled back to win the match. That is more than just winning. It takes an extra bit of courage to win when injured, and that was just remarkable.”

The Cyclones return to the court this weekend to host Texas Tech on Saturday, with match play beginning at 11 a.m.