The Cyclone Tennis team concluded its 1998 fall season by competing in the Rolex Regional Championships in Salt Lake City on the weekend of November 5th-8th.

Kendra Leese and Edna Vazquez both fell to seeded opponents in the main draw, with Vazquez losing to 8th seed Maria Galoustova and Leese losing to 11th seed Emily Smith of Oklahoma State and Colorado, respectively.

Leese defeated Tatiana Chtcherbakova of Tulsa in the consolation bracket before losing to Allison Lisle of Colorado State. Vazquez fell to Oklahoma Sooner Stephanie Sajbert in the consolation bracket.

Noortje Cornelissen lost in qualifying action. After winning her first match against Boise State’s Lauri Cheung, she lost to Nebraska Cornhusker Danica Hardy.

In doubles play, Cornelissen and Leese suffered two losses to teams from Kansas and Brigham Young.

Cyclone Coach Michelle Conlon thought the three players ISU took to the tournament “performed OK, not anything spectacular. We ran against a seeded player in each of our draws. That makes it difficult, but we want to expect to be able to beat some seeds.”

Earlier, the Cyclones were whitewashed in their first Big 12 meet of the season, losing on October 31st, in Ames, to the Texas Longhorns, 9-0.

The Longhorns were in a scary mood on Halloween day, as they did not drop a set, either in the six singles, or in the three doubles matches.

In No. 1 singles, Michelle Faucher defeated Noortje Cornelissen by the scoreline of 6-1, 6-1. In No. 2, the Longhorns had to work a little harder, as Kim Gates defeated Ann Simons 6-3, 6-2.

Cyclones Edna Vazquez (No. 3), Mary Rumboa (No. 4), Sharla Fortney (No. 5), and No.6 Karin Westberg all fell in straight sets to their Texas counterparts, Laura Berendt, Janet Walker, Rebekah Forney and Joane Masongsong, respectively.

In doubles, Longhorn tandems Gates and Masongsong, Berendt and Walker, and Forney and Faucher defeated Simons and Vazquez, Cornelissen and Westberg, and Whitaker and Rumboa by the scores of 8-0, 8-2 and 8-3, respectively.

Coach Conlon noted that “Texas is ranked fifth in the country; they’re very good” and that the Cyclones had some “good individual performances.” Remarking on the fact that ISU put out four freshman on the team of six, she said “it was good exposure for our freshman for them to get involved right away.”

The Cyclones enjoyed much more success at the second meet of the year, the Lloyd Stoksad Fall Tennis Classic, played at Drake University on the weekend of Oct. 24.

The tournament involved players from ISU, UNI, Drake, Gustavus Adolphus and Missouri. In Flight 1 singles, Cyclone Ann Simons defeated her ISU teammate Edna Vazquez in the consolation bracket final.

After falling in the first round to Caitlin Thompson of Missouri, Simons won consecutive matches against Claudia Loyola of UNI and Lily Ho of Missouri to advance to the finals. Vazquez reached the final after defeating Heather Mowery of UNI.

The other Cylcones in Flight 1, Noortje Cornelissen and Kendra Leese, posted a combined 1-3 record.

In Flight 2, Mary Rumboa did not drop a set in three matches on the way to the final, before losing to Jennifer Saluri of Drake in the final, 7-5, 6-2.

Karin Westberg eventually lost to Joni Jordan of Missouri, but not before she had defeated Ellen Anderson from Gustavus Adolphus. Anderson would get here revenge on the Cyclones by defeating Sharla Whitaker. Whitaker had lost her first round match to Jelena Kocergin of Missouri but won her first consolation match against Lisa Shanley of UNI before losing to Anderson.

In doubles, the same Missouri duo of Pavlova and Ho ended the hopes of two ISU teams. Ann Simons and Edna Vazquez fell to the Tiger twosome in the semis, and Noortje Cornelissen and Kendra Leese fell to them in the finals. The other Cyclone team, Whitaker and Rumboa, went 1-2 with losses to Kuruvilla and Dubusker of Drake, and Lindeman and Becker of UNI, and a win against Rodriguez and Stanley of UNI.

Coach Conlon was pleased but not enthused about the play of her team. She noted that “[the tournament] went fairly well. Fall tournaments are about individual performance, and we had some good performances.”

Coach Conlon is hopeful about the spring semester, remarking “with a semester and a meet under [our freshmen’s] belts, they should be more ready for the spring semester. It depends on how hard they work in the offseason.” Team member Kendra Leese is also “really excited about next semester. We’re getting a juco transfer in spring, and there’s a lot of talent on the team.” The Cyclones start spring play by hosting a ProAm event at the Racquet and Fitness Club on January 22nd.