Iowa State takes on No. 55 UCF in its second-to-last match of the regular season Friday in Ames.
In Iowa State’s last match, the team lost 4-1 to West Virginia after earning its third win two days prior against Cincinnati.
The loss to the Mountaineers gave the Cyclones their 15th loss of the season, dropping to 3-15 overall and 1-10 in Big 12 play.
UCF is right in the middle of the Big 12 with a 5-6 conference record and 8-11 overall. The Knights went on a four-match winning streak before losing a close 4-3 match against No. 1 Oklahoma State.
Despite having a record lower than .500, UCF has been ranked most of the year. The Knights have stayed around the same ranking all season, with their highest being set in the past three weeks at No. 55.
The Cyclones and Knights have faced off three times in the past, and Iowa State leads the series 2-1. The most recent match between the two came in the 2002-03 season, when UCF defeated Iowa State 4-3 in Orlando, Florida.
After starting the year in the fourth singles spot, Knights junior Noel Saidenova has climbed all the way to the first singles spot and a No. 97 ranking.
Saidenova has an 11-4 singles record and has four straight wins. The most recent victory was in the Knights’ match against Oklahoma State, where Saidenova took down No. 11 Anastasiya Komar 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-8).
The win against No. 11 Komar was Saidenova’s second ranked win of the year, the first being against No. 112 Destinee Martins from TCU.
Saidenova and Anique Kattenberg are the Knights’ first doubles pairing, and they boast an 8-7 record. The duo has split its last four matches and most recently lost 6-4 to No. 4 Ange Oby Kajuru and Komar.
The Cyclones were without their third singles player Isabella Dunlap against West Virginia after an injury in Iowa State’s win against Cincinnati. The Cyclones are familiar with playing short a player, as Juliette Nask was out for five matches early in the season.
Anna Supapitch Kuearum won the last two matches for the Cyclones, and a win Friday would be a 10th singles win of the year. Kuearum had seven singles wins last year and 11 the year before. Wins in the last two matches of the regular season would match Kuearum’s win total from 2021-22.
The Cyclones take on No. 55 UCF at noon Friday in Ames for their first of two home matches this weekend.
