The Iowa women’s tennis team competed in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I Central Regional Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Oct. 13-16.

The Hawkeyes were without sophomore Barbora Pokorna because of injury rehab, and they finished 3-6 in singles and 2-3 in doubles. In spite of the below .500 record, the Hawkeyes had two players — freshman Daianne Hayashida and sophomore Marisa Schmidt — reach the round of 32.

Hayashida and Schmidt were seeded at 25 and 32, respectively. While Schmidt faced No. 1 overall seed Thasaporn Naklo of Iowa State in the round of 32, Hayashida played No. 8 seed Alexandra Pisareva of Oklahoma in the same round. But head coach Sasha Schmid finds that most of her players don’t pay much attention to seeding.

“A lot of them don’t even like to look at the draw, it’s just a matter of ‘what time do I play?’” Schmid told The Daily Iowan. “It goes back to you can’t get caught up in giving your opponent too much credit, you’ve got to give yourself more credit.”

Even though both Hayashida and Schmid lost to their high seeded opponents in straight sets, Schmid was proud of how each thrived under pressure — pointing specifically to Schmidt’s second set against Naklo, who finished last season ranked No. 55 in singles.

“Continually to work on trusting her game and being aggressive,” Schmid said. “She really made progress throughout her match and ended up having a really good, solid second set where she was hitting out on the ball and got herself in a position to take it to three sets. Especially on deuce points and game points, not playing careful.”

Schmid said how the Hawkeyes have made progress in what they have emphasized in practice: embracing pressure situations with gratitude over nerves.

“Emphasize being able to embrace moments when we’re nervous, or when it’s difficult, and not be really resentful about the situation when they become hard but really kind of be grateful,” Schmid said. “Because those are the moments where they make the most progress and learn the most.”

Schmid said the improvement process will differ for each player over the next few weeks. Schmid said nothing is set in stone about a potential singles lineup or permanent doubles pairings, but the Hawkeyes have a lot of depth and skill to work with.

“There’s a lot of parity, a lot of similarity,” Schmid said. “It’s something [possible lineups] that can change over time. Our strength is depth since we have a lot of good solid players.”

The Hawkeyes will play their next tournament in the UNLV Invitational  in Las Vegas, Nevada from Nov. 11-13.