The Iowa State women’s tennis team enters the fall 2017 season lacking the clarity of last year.

The Cyclones will be without last season’s graduated senior standout, Samantha Budai, and a clear identity. The Cyclones finished last season 15-11, their best season since 1985, which included an impressive 12-game win streak from Feb. 10 until March 24.

Budai finished her tenure at Iowa State with 138 career singles wins, good for second overall in Iowa State history. Budai also ranked as high as 100th on the NCAA individual women’s rankings.

There is a bright side despite Budai’s departure. The roster boasts promising young players, including sophomore Maty Cancini, Budai’s primary stand-in when she was injured, and freshman Ekaterina Repina from Russia.

The roster also has proven players such as juniors Regina Espindola and Erin Freeman, among others. The roster does not have a single senior player.

In preparation for this season without Budai, the team has instituted a new process to determine a team captain. The process required team members to fill out an application for the coaching staff, and will demand a future interview with the coaches.

The team members that have applied are juniors Annabella Bonadonna and Freeman, and redshirt junior Liera Bender.

Freeman, who initially began her career at Utah State before transferring to Iowa State in 2016, compiled a 7-5 singles record while primarily playing at the No. 3 spot for the Cyclones last year. Bonadonna earned a 9-6 record playing the No. 5 and 6 spots. The last candidate, Bender had a 1-1 record operating at the No. 6 spot.

“As a captain of the team, you have to want to have the best interest of the team in mind,” said coach Armando Espinosa.

During the interview process, the coaches will determine how well the captain will be able to work with the coaching staff, their ability to communicate to the players and act as ambassadors on the coach’s behalf.

Espindola enters the season having already recently participated in competitive play representing Mexico at the World University Games held in Taipei, Taiwan. The World University Games were held Aug. 21-28.

Espindola and her partner Alonso Delgado opened up the games with a 2-0 mixed doubles loss to Krisztina Kapitany and Gergely Madarasz, of Hungary. She then won her first singles game 2-0 against Josefina Surraco, who represented Argentina. The following match, Espindola was defeated by Italian Natasha Piludu 2-1, which concluded her play at the games.

Espinosa notes that Espindola may have an advantage entering competitive play, but wants her play to continually grow throughout the season.

“We are not really looking to peak or reach our best performance this semester until we reach November,” Espinosa said. “We want to start by being a little bit better tactically.

“I think when we are playing the Big 12, which is one of the toughest conferences in the country, talent wise, on paper, a lot of the schools are better than us. How are we going to be able to compete with them? Well, we need to outwork them and outsmart them.”

Iowa State struggled against the Big 12, finishing with a 1-8 record in conference play. After the regular season, the Cyclones finished with a 4-1 loss in the first round of the Big 12 Championships to Kansas State.

The Big 12 was among the top conferences in the nation having Baylor, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, TCU and Texas represent the conference in the NCAA Championship Tournament.

The Cyclones open up the season on September 21 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Gopher Invitational.

Singles play will be a defining moment early in the season as players battle for spots for the one through six positions. Cancini, Freeman, Espindola and newcomer Repina may all be competing for the top half of spots.

During doubles play, expect Cancini to open up playing with Repina at the No. 1 doubles spot. This leaves Bonadonna and Margarita Timakova playing together at No. 2 spot. Last year, Bonadonna and Timakova played extremely well together in that No. 2 spot, finishing with an 11-6 record.

Karen Alvarez and Espindola paired up in the No. 3 spot last season, tallying a record of 9-5, but prepare for competition at the No. 3 spot.