Even though Iowa women’s tennis player Pia Kranholdt lost her singles match against Wisconsin on March 4, she knew something changed.

The Hawkeye freshman dropped her duel against the Badgers’ Charmaine Seah in straight sets (6-4, 6-3), but said that the match was a turning point in her mentality.

“I mean, I lost, but I still played better than the matches before that,” Kranholdt said. “I just played better than I saw, and [I thought], ‘I can do it.’”

Arriving in Iowa City as a top-100 player in Germany’s Women’s Open, Kranholdt’s introduction to spring season college tennis wasn’t exactly smooth.

Kranholdt occupied the No. 6 singles spot in six of the Hawkeyes’ first 11 matches this season and lost all six of those starts in straight sets.

“I think I put myself under a lot of pressure, and I just wanted to, like, play my best, and then I did the opposite of it,” Kranholdt said. “I just had too many thoughts in my head when I played.”

Kranholdt’s results started to change during the Hawkeyes’ four-match homestand starting on March 17. In Iowa’s win over Michigan State, Kranholt defeated the Spartans’ Charlotte Gisclon in straight sets for her first win of the spring.

Kranholdt said she has been working on her footwork and offensive strokes during her twice-a-week individual practice sessions to develop more trust in her game.

Iowa head coach Sasha Schmid said Kranholdt has always performed well in practice, but she couldn’t transfer her skill and talent to a match scenario. In Iowa’s win over Nebraska on March 25, Schmid saw the transition from practice to the game.

“I think watching her close out the Nebraska match in straight sets pretty decisively was really, really, great,” Schmid said. “I think that shows a lot of growth and mental toughness. Physically and mentally, she’s just really maturing.”

With her teammates and coaches telling her to keep believing and having fun, Kranholdt continued her winning streak with another straight-set victory over Purdue’s Juana Larranaga (6-4, 6-4).

Iowa went 3-0 as a team during Kranholdt’s dominant stretch, but both the Hawkeyes and Kranholdt met their match on April 2 in a home matchup against Indiana.

In the Hoosiers’ 4-2 win, Kranholdt fell to Indiana’s Xiaowei Hu, 6-1, in the first set of their match, but responded promptly with a 6-4 victory in the second set. Up 5-4 in the final set, Kranholdt lost three straight games and dropped the set, 7-5.

The loss may have snapped Kranholdt’s recent run, but by forcing a third set, Schmid saw further signs of progress.

“There are so many components to tennis,” Schmid said. “There’s technique, there’s strategy, and there’s pressure … There’s a lot that goes into matches, and she’s putting that together in a nice way.”