Cyclones Beat Hawkeyes for First Time in 44 Years

Friday, February 28

Urbandale, Iowa

4:00 PM

Iowa State

Iowa

Cyclones Beat Hawkeyes for First Time in 44 Years

02.28.2020 | Tennis

URBANDALE, Iowa - It was a historic evening in Urbandale for Iowa State tennis. The Cyclones (8-3) took down their in-state rival Iowa (4-6) for the first time since 1976, ending a 39-match losing streak to the Hawkeyes. ISU also extended its home winning streak dating back to last season to nine matches.

Freshman Chie Kezuka was the clincher for the Cyclones. With the match tied at 3-3, Kezuka rallied to beat Danielle Burich, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, in a three-set thriller to give Iowa State the extraordinary win.

The Cyclones came out strong in doubles with each pairing winning the first game. The 45th-ranked duo of Thasaporn Naklo/Christin Hsieh quickly beat the tough Elisen Van Heuvelen/Samantha Mannix paring from Iowa, 6-1. Maty Cancini and Ting-Pei Chang followed suit, also winning their match 6-1 and earning the doubles point for Iowa State.

The doubles success seemed to carry over for the Cyclones because they were hot at the start of singles play. Many players jumped out to early leads over the Hawkeyes and won the first set.

Iowa fought hard though, battling back to make every match close. Cancini beat Mannix in her final bout with the Hawkeyes and Chang won a big one against Ashleigh Jacobs to give her nine-straight singles wins.

Iowa earned three-set wins at No. 1 and No. 6 singles, as well as a win at No. 3 singles to even the match before Kezuka secured the win.

"All we wanted to do was go fight as hard as we can." said second-year head coach Boomer Saia.

"It's one that I kind of circled, it's the Cy-Hawk series," Saia said. "It's as big as it gets in this state. That was one of our goals. Unbelievable fight, I'm just so proud of this group, it was so neat. It was a huge step for us."

The celebration will be brief for the Cyclones as they travel to Morgantown, West Virginia on Sunday to face the Mountaineers at 9:00 a.m.

Iowa State 4, Iowa 3
Results
Doubles (Order of finish: 3, 1, 2)
#1 Thasaporn Naklo/Christin Hsieh (ISU) def. Elise Van Heuvelen/Samantha Mannix (UI) 6-1
#2 Maty Cancini/Ting-Pei Chang (ISU) def. Michelle Bacalla/Danielle Burich (UI) 6-1
#3 Danielle Bauers/Ashleigh Jacobs (UI) def. Chie Kezuka/Margarita Timakova (ISU) 6-1

Singles (Order of finish: 3, 2, 4, 6, 1, 5)
#1 Van Heuvelen (UI) def. Naklo (ISU) 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
#2 Cancini (ISU) def. Mannix (UI) 7-6 (5), 6-2
#3 Bacalla (UI) def. Hsieh (ISU) 6-0, 6-3
#4 Chang (ISU) def. Jacobs (UI) 6-0, 3-6, 6-1
#5 Kezuka (ISU) def. Burich (UI) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
#6 Bauers (UI) def. Timakova (ISU) 3-6, 7-5, 6-4