WSU tennis got off to a rocky start on its current road game series with a 5-2 loss to Gonzaga; however, the Cougars look to turn things around in their upcoming matches.

Freshman Yang Lee said she thinks the team is prepared for their next matches after losing to Gonzaga.

“We’re just moving on and keeping going and everybody falls so we just got to get back up and fight again,” Lee said.

WSU’s next road game is in Manhattan, Kansas against the Kansas State Wildcats. Kansas was the first team to beat the Cougs last season by a close score of 4-3, putting the Cougs at a 7-1 record at the time.

Head Coach Lisa Hart said her team will be looking for revenge against Kansas State.

“They beat us 4-3 last year, Kansas State did, so this is kinda redemption time in our minds,” Hart said. “Our upperclassmen especially are really excited about going back and getting a different result.”

The Wildcats are currently on a four-game winning streak, including a 4-3 win against Southern Methodist University Mustangs last Thursday. The Cougars had a 4-3 comeback win against SMU earlier this season.

It’s going to be a tough matchup in Kansas, and the Cougars will have to follow up a couple days later with a double-header series in Lincoln, Nebraska. Awaiting the Cougars in the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center will be Nebraska, followed by Iowa State.

“I think our players are up to the challenge,” Hart said. “We don’t have that much recovery time after Kansas State, so our focus right now is to get that first win and then recover as fast as we can for those two matches.”

This is the second single-day road double-header series of the season for the Cougars since their trip against Montana. For Nebraska, this will be its fourth home double-header single-day series. Each double-header match has been a win for the Cornhuskers, with five of their six of their opponents getting shutout by them.

The last time the Cougars faced the Cornhuskers was in the 2011-2012 season; WSU lost 4-3.

“I think [Nebraska is] going to be a hungry team, they’re going to be playing at home, they’re going to have a lot to play for,” Hart said. “So I think we definitely can’t overlook them. I do like how we match up on paper, but anything can happen.”

Following the match against the Cornhuskers, the Cougars will face the Iowa State Cyclones later that afternoon. Due to their late start, the Cyclones haven’t played many games so far and they hold an 0-2 record on the road.

This lack of experience in the season makes the Cyclones somewhat of a wildcard for the Cougars.

Hart said that the team won’t have a clear picture of how Iowa State will match with them, but the team will scope them out before the match.

“We haven’t had a chance to really look at them much yet so we’ll do that after the Kansas State match,” Hart said. “We’ll get busy scouting those teams especially Iowa.”

The Cougars first play Kansas State at 12 p.m. on Thursday in Manhattan, Kansas. They then have a days rest until they face Nebraska and Iowa State at 10 a.m and at 5 p.m. on Saturday, respectively.