Cyclones set to face two teams this weekend TCU and Texas Tech

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Kennedy DeRaedt/Iowa State Daily

Senior Samantha Budai played for Iowa State Tennis on April 23. This was the final home match for Budai. She earned the first-ever national ranking by a Cyclone tennis player. 

Nash Vanbibber

The Iowa State Cyclones will finish out their regular season at home and will face the TCU Horned Frogs on Friday at 2 p.m. and will face the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Sunday at 10 a.m.

The Cyclones are coming off loses to No. 5 Texas and No. 25 Baylor. The Cyclones are looking to finish their regular season strong and get a win for their fans.

“I’ve seen a lot of positives going into this weekend. We played very hard against No. 5 Texas even though we were not able to capture a win in any matches,” Espinosa said. “When we played Baylor we took the doubles point away from Baylor, that is the first time ever that we were able to do that.”

Espinosa is very excited to finish out the 2017-2018 year and is hoping to go out on a good note, defeating the Horned Frogs and Red Raiders this weekend.

Iowa State has been unable to get a win in its five-game history with the Horned Frogs. Last year when the teams met the Cyclones were defeated by TCU, 4-0, at Fort Worth, Texas.

“TCU is very talented but are not ranked which surprises me,” Espinosa said. “They have played great teams this season and have lost by only a point or two the whole season.

“We are playing indoors on Friday which they are not used to so hopefully we can use that as our advantage. We have to go out onto the court and leave everything out there in order to win this weekend”.

The Cyclones have been practicing on their fundamentals this week which includes serving, returning and being more aggressive at the net. 

“We have to stay more solid in the first four balls, if we play well in doubles it will carry on into the rest of the match,” Espinosa said.

With the end of the year closing, Espinosa is very proud of the team and what all the women have accomplished.

“We have grown tremendously this year,” Espinosa said. “We have gone through a lot of adversity. we have no seniors this year so we are very young team, I am beyond excited for next season.”

The Cyclones will head into the Big 12 championship on April 26-29 in Austin, Texas. Espinosa is not worried about the Big 12’s he is focused on the matches this weekend against TCU and Texas Tech. 

“We are taking one match at a time, we will focus on Big 12’s when it comes closer,” Espinosa said.