The ISU women’s tennis team was defeated 7-0 by the No. 15 Texas Longhorns Sunday afternoon at the 7 Flags Racquet and Fitness Center in West Des Moines.

The team was slated to face Northern Illinois Saturday but the meet was canceled due to inclement weather. The meet against Texas was the second conference meet of the season for the Cyclones and their third loss in Division I dual competition.

Head coach Michele Conlon said the team doesn’t pay attention to winning all of their matches. “I think coaches and players are motivated by how they compete,” Conlon said. “Wins and losses are for fans and statistics.”

Conlon said the idea of these losses being a precursor for things to come had never crossed her mind.

“The level of competition in the Big 12 is tough,” Conlon said. “I’m in no way discouraged at all.”

Conlon said Texas has been one of the top five or ten teams on the national scene for years and that the meet was an excellent barometer of how well the team is playing. She said the mood after the meet was very upbeat.

“The team is performing and doing well,” Conlon said. “They are getting better all the time.”

The freshmen are adding greatly to the success of the team. One of the closest singles matches on Sunday belonged to freshman Suzanne Rutten. Rutten narrowly lost her second set 7-5 after losing 6-2 in the first.

“I felt pretty good compared to other meets,” Rutten said. “It gets better every time. You gain more confidence and feel like you have a chance to win.”

“Suzanne had a really tough singles match,” Conlon said. “She competed really hard and also played well in doubles.”

Freshman Evangelina Soriano paired up with senior Courtney Leese to claim the only victory of the day in the number three doubles slot. Soriano and Leese defeated their Texas opponents 9-7 after being behind 7-4, 40-15.

“Eve and Courtney were down 7-4 in match points and came back,” Conlon said. “It was inspirational. Anytime you are down against a team like Texas and come back and win it’s extremely pleasing.”

“We went in thinking anything was possible,” Soriano said. “We played how we usually play and came back point by point.”

Soriano said that the win was very motivating for the rest of the matches the rest of the year.

“It was a tough match against a good team,” Soriano said. “We felt really good about it.”

The ISU women will face off against Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, on Feb. 22.

“Texas is a pretty young team,” Soriano said. “Texas Tech will be more challenging. We want to go in and play some good tennis and not feel like they will beat us.”

Conlon said trying to figure out where her team stands in the Big 12 is impossible right now because so few games have been played. Predicting where the team would stand after the meet against Texas Tech is also tough to determine, she said.

“I’m not going to make predictions ever,” Conlon said. “That would be like saying we were going to win or lose and no coach would ever do that.”