Iowa State travels to Waco, Texas, to take on the No. 30 Baylor Bears for its seventh-straight ranked matchup.
The Cyclones most recently lost 4-0 in a short match against Texas Tech in Ames, Iowa, which extended the team’s losing streak to double-digits. Iowa State has an overall record of 2-10 and a conference record of 0-5. The last Cyclone team to start 0-5 in conference play ended the year 0-9 in Big 12 play, and it was Armando Espinosa’s last year as head coach for Iowa State in 2017-18.
Iowa State is 2-28 all-time against Baylor, with the last matchup resulting in a 6-1 Cyclone victory in Waco, Texas. The Cyclones had lost the five matchups before that.
Baylor began the year unranked, but after a strong start and a string of victories at the end of February, it first appeared in the rankings at No. 41. Since then, the Bears have bounced around and dropped four spots since the last rankings after a 7-0 loss to No. 1 Oklahoma State.
Iowa State’s Anna Supapitch Kuearum has a tough matchup again, taking on No. 101 Miska Kadleckova in the first singles spot Friday. Kadleckova is 12-2 on the year, and 11 of the wins were in straight sets.
Isabella Harvison and Liubov Kostenko, who spend most of their time in the third doubles spot for Baylor, have climbed to No. 66 in the ITA doubles rankings with a 6-1 record. The Cyclones just recently got back to full strength, and the third doubles pair of Juliette Nask and Ashlee Narker have played two matches with each other after Nask was out for around a month.
The Cyclones are on the road for the first time since their 5-2 loss to Kansas on March 9 and are looking for a different result against a strong Baylor team. Three Cyclones are looking to break their own losing streaks in singles.
Gala Arangio has not won a match and is 0-8, Isabella Dunlap has lost five-straight matches and Valeska San Martin Ramirez has lost six-straight matches. Dunlap, who started the year 3-2, has struggled as of late, and a bounce-back match would be crucial to help the team.
The Cyclones take on Baylor at 3 p.m. Saturday in Waco, Texas.
