The Cyclone women’s tennis team will host two dual meets this weekend, including their first Big 12 meet of the spring season.

Iowa State will play Ball State at 4 p.m. Friday at the Ames Racquet and Fitness Center and then face Texas A&M at noon Saturday.

The dual meets will consist of singles matches and doubles matches.

“Ball State is a tough team,” senior Courtney Leese said. “In the past we have lost some close matches to them, they have had good doubles.”

“We always have a dog fight with Ball State,” head coach Michele Conlon said. “They beat us last year so this will be a revenge match. This is our first dual match of the season and we hope that the four freshman will be strong contributors to the team.”

The ISU women competed in the University of Iowa Invitational last weekend.

At the invitational, they played mock dual matches against DuPaul, Drake and Iowa.

Leese said the tournament helped them to feel better about competing.

It also got rid of their “first tournament jitters.”

Leese said playing dual meets is different than playing in tournaments.

“It’s nice to know that you just have one singles match and one doubles match to play,” Leese said. “If you can hardly walk off the court when you’re done then that’s OK.”

Conlon agreed.

“The tournament format is more spread out,” Conlon said. “A dual meet is confined to three to five hours and can be more intense because it is compacted into a shorter time.”

After competing against Ball State, the Cyclone women will return to the courts to face the Aggies of Texas A&M.

“A&M has been one of the top three teams in the Big 12 for the past few years,” Leese said. “Hopefully we can start off well and compete well.”

“Every match in the Big 12 will be strong,” Conlon said. “We won’t look at this match any differently than we would any other.”

The Texas A&M women’s tennis team is ranked No. 22 out of the top 75 teams in the national Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings.

Their top two players, Lauren Walker (107) and Jessica Roland (108), were ranked in the top 125 in singles in the national preseason poll.

Iowa State is not ranked.

“I’ll be happy if we pull out a few matches,” Leese said. “If we do, then the weekend will be a success.”

“The most important thing to do as a team is to stay on an even keel,” Conlon said. “If we are victorious then we will come back and work hard on Monday.”

If we are very challenged at this meet then we will come back and work hard on Monday,” she said. “We have to be diplomatic and not get too high with our wins or too low with our losses.”