Iowa women’s tennis will face Marquette.

The Iowa women’s tennis team will face off against Marquette in Milwaukee at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The match with the Golden Eagles is gearing up to be a pivotal nonconference matchup for the improving Hawkeyes, just a couple weeks out from conference play.

“It will definitely be a good steppingstone for Big Tens,” senior Ruth Seaborne said. “Spirits are high, practice has been going well this week, we are just looking forward to playing this match this weekend.”

The Hawks have had quite a tough go on the road, failing to win a match thus far this season on an opponent’s home turf.

“Marquette is a feisty team,” head coach Katie Dougherty said. “They’ve given us some problems in the past a couple years ago, we are at their place, we need to show up and compete well on Saturday.”

Iowa seems to be on the rise recently. The players are all buying in.

“Just seeing the progress, it’s easy for the coaching staff to see it, but I think, finally, the team kind of saw how far we’ve come,” Dougherty said.

The team’s improvement was on full display last weekend as they faced off against DePaul. The Hawkeyes had played the Blue Demons earlier in the season and suffered a loss that left a bitter taste.

“We saw the improvement … it was substantial; we definitely took it as a learning experience,” junior Shelby Talcott said.

— by Alec Clasen