After defeating Northern Iowa on home courts last week, the ISU women’s tennis team will travel to Columbia, Mo., Friday to play the Missouri Tigers.

The Tigers are coming off a 4-3 loss to Oklahoma and will play back-to-back meets against the Texas Longhorns at 10 a.m. and the Cyclones at 2 p.m.

Senior Kristin Gyaki said she thinks playing second will be an advantage.

“Texas is a tough team and [Missouri] will have a tough match against them,” Gyaki said. “It will be great for us to go against them after they have been playing for a couple of hours.”

She said the Cyclones have yet to play at the Green Tennis Center and don’t know the facility or what the crowd will be like.

“Missouri is a great team competitor,” Gyaki said. “We’re looking forward to playing them.”

Missouri has a 4-5 conference record and is 12-6 in overall match play. Iowa State is 0-9 in the conference and has only had two wins out of 13 overall matches this season.

When preparing for away meets, Gyaki said the team sticks with their routine and what they are comfortable with.

“We make sure we drink a lot of water while we are traveling,” she said. “This is what we’re used to. You deal with it.”

Upon returning from Missouri, Iowa State will host Nebraska at 1 p.m. Saturday at Forker Tennis Courts. The meet will be the last regular competition of the season before the Big 12 Conference tournament begins on April 24.

“Really, for me, I hope to have great matches and have a good experience,” Gyaki said. “I really want to remember what college tennis is all about.”

She said the Nebraska meet on Saturday would be Senior Day.

“We’ll do a little Senior Day ceremony and go on with the matches as usual,” Gyaki said. “Hopefully, we will have a great turn out for the crowd and get a win.”

An annual spring banquet will be held for the team on Saturday evening at the Jacobson Athletic Building. The team will honor its three seniors — Gyaki, Tara Goedjen and Courtney Leese —ÿand give out several team awards. Some of these awards include the Sharon Mathes Mental Toughness Award, the Spirit Award and the Hardest Worker Award.

Gyaki said it is nice to have the season come to an end but she is sad because it is her last season.

“There’s more I could accomplish,” she said. “I’d like to stay with the team and see them go through positive changes. I’m going to make the most of the time left in the last two matches.”

As far as the season as a whole, Gyaki said it was definitely a learning experience.

“I’m going to take out of it that we gave it our best and that’s all we can ask from ourselves,” she said. “I’m happy with that. It was an all-around good experience.”