The ISU women’s tennis team continued its recent hot play, splitting a pair of matches this weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska.

On Saturday, March 27, ISU fell to Colorado State 5-4, but recovered to rout Creighton 9-0 on Sunday.

The Cyclones have now won four of their last five matches.

The doubles continued to be strong, as the Cyclones won all of their doubles matches over the weekend.

The improvement pleased Cyclone coach Michele Conlon.

“I think our doubles are definitely better now than at the beginning,” Conlon said. “It’s a credit to our players. They’ve worked very hard.”

Colorado State won every singles match except No. 5, where Mary Rumbaoa defeated Catherine Sullivan 7-5, 6-4.

Kendra Leese sent her match to three sets before falling to Allison Lisle 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 in the No. 4 slot.

Karin Westberg also took her opponent, Allison Forrest, to the limit, before falling 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the final singles slot.

The Rams took control of the meet by winning the first three singles matches.

Alana Colglazier defeated Noortje Cornelissen 6-2, 7-6; Andrean Simons fell to Heidi Auvinen 6-2, 6-4; and Amanda Bartz defeated ISU’s Edna Vazquez 7-5, 6-1.

Colorado State had already clinched the match by compiling a 5-1 record in the singles matches.

However, ISU continued to battle, sweeping the doubles matches.

Cornelissen and Westberg won 8-3 over Colglazier and Lisle, Leese and Vazquez defeated Bartz and Sullivan 8-5, and Simons and Rumbaoa defeated Ann Wierman and Forrest 8-5.

The Cyclones took the momentum from doubles into Sunday and dominated Creighton.

ISU did not lose a set.

Rumbaoa once again proved to be the strongest competitor for ISU.

She blanked Jenny Daker 6-0, 6-0, in No. 5 singles.

After Cornelissen won the No. 1 singles match 6-1, 6-1 over Melissa Rosenthal, ISU’s two, three, and four players won their matches by identical scores of 6-3, 6-2.

Simons defeated Lauren Woodward, Vazquez defeated Daker, and Leese defeated Jeanne Raynor.

In the final, No. 6 singles slot, Sharla Whitaker defeated Kelly Kielbowicz 6-3, 6-0.

Whitaker has been rotating with Karin Westberg in that slot,but says she has “no problems with substitutions. It’s a great opportunity. Whenever I play, I have to give my best.”

Coach Conlon said the substitutions are in the long term interest of the team.

“I keep both of them playing. We have a very young team this year. It’s important for everybody to get experience.”

ISU swept the doubles as well. Cornelissen and Karin Westberg won by the same score as their CSU match, 8-3, over Woodward and Jeanne Daker.

Leese and Vazquez were pushed but came through in a tiebreak to defeat Rosenthal and Daker, 9-8.

Finally, Simons and Rumbaoa completed a perfect doubles weekend for ISU with an 8-4 win over Raynor and Kielbowicz.