Cyclones set for first home match

Cyclones go up against the University of Ohio on April 21.

Nash Vanbibber

After a long winter break, the Iowa State women’s tennis team is starting its second half of the season this week and are looking to come out hot for their first home match for the first time this season.

The Iowa State women’s tennis team will host Augustana at 10 a.m. and another match is also set later in the day at 3 p.m. against South Dakota at LifeTime Fitness in Urbandale.

This will be Iowa State’s fourth match against Augustana. Iowa State leads the series with a 3-0 record. In last year’s match, Iowa State defeated Augustana with a 4-1 victory on the road.

Iowa State is currently 2-0 when facing South Dakota, with the only dual match-ups being in 2010 and 2014. Along with the spring season, the Cyclones played South Dakota in the Gopher Invitational and Jon Messick Invitational last fall. 

Junior Annabell Bonadonna bounced back into the CSUN Invitational with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory and is eager to keep her hot hand alive this weekend. 

Bonadonna did not have a relaxing break like the rest of students as she had to keep in shape for the upcoming match.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to playing tennis, the last match I played in was in November, so it has been awhile since I have played competitively,” Bonadonna said. “I am looking forward to the challenge.”

Bonadonna is very excited for the first home match for the Cyclones and is excited to play in front of family, friends and her fans.

“I think the whole team is looking forward to it as well, it will be a full day of tennis, which we have all been waiting for,” Bonadonna said. “The great thing about the upcoming match is that after we play Augustana and South Dakota we have another two-week break to practice and get better and focus on our next opponent.”

Head coach Armando Espinosa had this to say about the upcoming match.

“The game-plan for this weekend is all going to be about execution for us,” Espinosa said.

The Cyclones are very familiar with Augustana since they recently played Augustana in the fall, but many things have changed since then such as line-up changes and the overall performance of the team.

“This weekend we are getting our feet wet with the start of the second half of the season, and we are looking to come out and dominate and most importantly get the win,” Espinosa said.

After coming off a four-week break, the team has been itching to get back into the routine of having one to two matches in a month. 

“The girls are eager to play against new people, they have just been playing each other so it will be good to have a higher standard of competition,” Espinosa said.

For the first three weeks of coming back from break, the girls have had to work on many different types of drills to get back into tennis shape. 

“We have been doing many serving and returning practices, and learning how to be more aggressive by striking first,” Espinosa said. “We are trying to have more net play and to be more aggressive at the net.”