The Northern Iowa tennis team’s season is in full swing, as they prepare to play the Drake Bulldogs this Saturday at 2 p.m. This will be the first Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) game of the season for UNI, who finds themselves in a strange place in regards to their record.

The team stands at 7-4 with all one-sided victories. However, their losses are a little more complex. Both Fordham University and Iowa State University (ISU) shut them out while Navy only dropped two matches. Their loss against Milwaukee resulted in a one point loss, 4-3.

UNI has been a strong force at home, dropping only one meet to Iowa State, but recording three 6-1 wins. When playing the opposition on the road, UNI is just above .500 at 4-3.

The Panthers gained an edge within the MVC thanks to a decent neutral site record of 3-2 to balance the 1-1 away record. Going purely by winning percentage, UNI is technically first in the Valley; the team and Stony Brooke are also tied for least matches played at 11.

The actual first place team is Wichita State (WSU), at 9-7 overall and 3-0 in the Valley, beating three sub .500 teams. UNI now faces a strong three game home stand, starting with Drake and ending with WSU. Then, a two match road split against Illinois State and Bradley University. They’ll then end their season with two more home games against Southern Illinois and Evansville before the Valley Tournament.

The four seniors on the team are strong leaders. Elvira Lopez has the second best overall singles record at 11-5. While Astrid Santos isn’t leading the team record wise, she is playing strong and often at 10-10.

Jieke Stroobant and Sydney Wolfe are pulling their weight at 12-8 and 11-8. Santos and Stroobant lead the team with 20 competitions.

Junior Gisela Kemper leads the team with a 13-5 record in singles. She is also a strong doubles player despite having four different partners so far. She is 12-5 in doubles play; she’s played best with sophomore Eve Small and Wolfe, going 5-1 and 4-0 in those pairings.

The last player on the roster is junior Savanna Hunt, who will look to improve her 4-9 record once conference play starts.

This team could make a strong run with a little help. The main worry will be reloading for next year as four of the seven players are seniors. The two juniors and the lone sophomore are strong cornerstones, but only one has a winning record in singles at this point.

Hopefully, the team does as well as it looks like they can this year to help bring in some depth.