The Iowa women’s tennis team completed a two-match road trip to Minnesota this weekend, splitting the matches.

After dropping their match to Wisconsin, 6-1, on Saturday, the Hawkeyes rebounded with a 4-1 victory over Minnesota for their first conference win of the season.

Still looking for quality win

After their home loss to fourth-ranked Iowa State on Feb. 24, the Hawkeyes dropped from 40th to 64th in the national rankings. On Saturday, Iowa faced off against another top-15 opponent — 12th-ranked Wisconsin.

The Badgers feature three nationally-ranked singles players: 62nd-ranked Ava Markham in the No. 1 slot, 88th-ranked Maria Sholokhova in the second slot, and 103rd-ranked Xinyu Cai at the No. 5 spot. All three won matches against their Hawkeye counterparts.

The Hawkeyes dropped two of three doubles matches against Wisconsin, with the No. 2 combination of Iowa fifth-year senior Samantha Mannix and sophomore Marisa Schmidt trailing, 5-3, in an unfinished match.

In singles, Schmidt lost in straight sets for the first time all season. The lone win for Iowa came on court 2, where Mannix defeated Sholokhova in three sets. Mannix was down, 4-0, in the final set when the Elkhorn, Nebraska, native stormed back to claim a 6-4 victory.

The next day, the Hawkeyes returned to the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis to square off against a Minnesota squad that was down three players due to injury. As a result, Iowa won one doubles match and two singles matches via forfeit.

Mannix and Schmidt gave the Hawkeyes an early lead with their 6-2 doubles victory over the Badgers’ Anet Koskel and Aiva Schmitz. The match-clinching victory occurred when Iowa freshman Daianne Hayashida, who took a straight-set singles loss on Saturday, delivered a straight set victory over Schmitz to give the Hawkeyes four points.

“I think I didn’t rush as much,” Hayashida told The Daily Iowan. “I was more patient, more calm. Against Wisconsin I wanted to finish the point faster, so that was the difference. [Against Wisconsin] I lost the first set. I didn’t think I played bad, I played well, but I just couldn’t break [Cai’s] serve.”

The Golden Gophers prevented a shutout when Zeyneb Sarioglan dropped Iowa junior Vipasha Mehra on Court 3. Although Iowa earned its first Big Ten win of the season, head coach Sasha Schmid still believes her team has yet to have a true quality win. Schmid said her team had good wins against Denver and Kansas State in February but didn’t have a victory where everyone had a great performance.

“I just think we’re hopefully going to peek at the Big Ten season because I don’t think we’ve been able to like, just have everyone firing on all cylinders in the match,” Schmid said. “In practice, we keep talking about it, keep striving for it, try to keep the standard high, and keep pushing. I think it takes a lot of, you know, fighting complacency. I think everyone just really needs to be able to make a lot of balls, so your shot tolerance has to be higher, and the quality of balls has to be really good.”

Hayashida and Mehra’s chemistry  

The Hawkeyes No. 1 doubles team of Hayashida and Mehra went 0-1 on the weekend with one unfinished match against Minnesota, where they were down, 4-3, when play was stopped. The pair was on a three-match winning streak heading into Saturday and had most recently taken down the 39th-ranked combination of Iowa State’s Thasaporn Naklo and Anna Supapitch Kuearum on Feb. 24.

“I like that she’s lefty, so it’s like, both of us play with the backhand,” Hayashida said. “I really like her shooting the volley and me being the baseline. I think that’s a really good combination because she loves the volley and I really like being in the baseline.”

Lamoreaux’s absence 

Iowa fifth-year senior Anya Lamoreaux didn’t play in either match over the weekend due to illness. Schmid said the Utah transfer practiced a little during the week but was ultimately unable to go.

Kranholdt struggles

Hawkeye freshman Pia Kranholdt lost her singles match against Wisconsin in straight sets (6-4, 6-3). The Hilders, Germany, native won her match via forfeit on Sunday and has contributed multiple doubles wins but was winless in four singles matches so far this season.

“She plays really, really well in practice,” Schmid said of Kranholdt. “And it’s just in the process of trying to get that to translate to a competition match where she’s a little bit more nervous. I think a lot of it is that she’s just playing too far behind the baseline, getting a little too conservative, and not playing aggressive enough.”

Up next

Iowa’s next match is a road trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a midweek matchup against the Wolverines on March 15. Michigan is 8-2 on the season heading into their rivalry match against Michigan State on March 11.