The ISU women’s tennis team will have to wait to start its Big 12 season, as last weekend’s meets against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were postponed. The Cyclones instead get back to action Friday to play host to Division III Gustavus Adolphus.

Although it has been two weeks since her team’s last competitive meet, head coach Michele Conlon said she feels the team will be ready to play.

“Sometimes breaks can help,” Conlon said. “We’ve been working on our doubles matches along with our movement and tactics. I think they’ll be ready.”

The ISU players have been given time to rest and recuperate. The emphasis in practice this week was getting back into match mode and working on players’ footwork.

“This week we played a lot of sets,” freshman Jill Palen said. “We really wanted to get into our match play mode. We worked on our side-to-side drills, cone-hop drill and also forehand drills.”

Conlon said the team has been doing a number of different drills aimed toward footwork. Agility drills, plyometrics and the footwork ladder are just a few.

“We’ve been doing lots of footwork drills,” freshman Danielle Uscinski said. “For this weekend we did a lot of feeding drills too.”

The team has also been focusing on its strength and conditioning twice a week throughout the season. Those two days consist of lifting weights accompanied by running sprints and yoga.

Positive focus is what the Cyclones feel they need to pull out a victory this weekend.

“We need to be consistent,” Palen said. “You can’t beat yourself. We need to be ready to play and we need to stay healthy.”

After losing their last home meet to Drake, the Cyclones are more focused to go out and perform well in front of home fans this weekend.

“We just want to play the best we can and have fun,” Uscinski said. “To lose against Drake was hard since we were right there and it could have gone either way. We need to push ourselves harder this weekend.”

Friday’s meet will begin at 4 p.m. at the Ames Racquet and Fitness Center, 320 S. 17th St. Conlon said she encourages crowd attendance, as it could give the Cyclones the edge they need.

“We would love to get people out there,” Conlon said. “You would be amazed how much one fan can have on the impact of a meet.”