At 9 a.m. Saturday the Iowa State Cyclones will travel to Morgantown, West Virginia, to face the West Virginia Mountaineers for another Big 12 matchup. 

Both Iowa State and West Virginia are coming off of losses to No. 50 Oklahoma and No. 19 Oklahoma State, both teams are looking to get back on track and into the win column, this weekend will be very important for both teams.

Head coach Armando Espinosa is very anxious to get back into the win column this weekend.

Even though Iowa State had tough losses to both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State last weekend, Espinosa saw some very good things from the team.

“I thought we competed very well,” Espinosa said. “Even when both teams were up big we did not put our heads into sand and give up, everyone played hard.”

There is always need to improve even after winning a huge match or losing a tough match. The Cyclones do not have any easy matches the rest of the year and every match will be a battle until the end.

“We just need to focus, no match is easy. We need every point we can get and we need to ride that momentum,” Espinosa said.

The Cyclones have been working on the fundamentals of tennis this week during practices such as working on their serves and returns.

“If we have good fundamentals against West Virginia we should be able to stick right with them and get a victory,” Espinosa said.

The plan of attack against West Virginia is to come out confident and to use the momentum throughout the match.

“The court will have an additional court, not the traditional three,” Espinosa said. “If we capitalize on the first four points and ride out the momentum, I believe we have a good chance of winning this weekend.”

After this weekend’s match against West Virginia, Iowa State will be home for the next three weeks. It has been a long road for the Cyclones traveling all around the country, but the Cyclones will be looking to take advantage of staying in Iowa for the upcoming weeks. 

“We necessarily do not have home court advantage, we play well wherever we go,” Espinosa said. “It’s just the traveling, it really does take a toll on your body; the girls are very excited to stay home for the next upcoming weeks.”