The Iowa State Cyclones (2-7) tennis team will travel over 800 miles this week for a rare three-game road swing.

The Cyclones begin the weekend with a pair of ranked conference matchups against No. 44 Baylor Bears in Waco, Texas, on Friday before traveling to Fort Worth for a matchup against the No. 19 TCU Horned Frogs. Iowa State will end the road trip with a non-conference meeting against the North Texas Mean Green on Monday.

Iowa State has hit a cold stretch this season, dropping its previous five games. After losing a nailbiter against Illinois on Feb. 13, the Cyclones were swept in the Cy-Hawk game two days later and again in the Big 12 conference opener against Colorado. The last two games against No. 30 Texas Tech and the Kansas Jayhawks have started with the Cyclones facing an early deficit, but both matches have ended with Iowa State staging a comeback attempt.

Iowa State will have to lean on its depth to defeat the Baylor Bears (7-4) on Friday. The Bears feature one of the top duos in the Big 12 this season. No. 44 Na Dong holds an 8-2 overall record and 6-2 record on the No. 1 court on the year, and No. 100 Zuzanna Kubacha follows close behind with a 7-2 overall record and a 6-2 record on the No. 2 court.

Outside of the two stars for Baylor, Iowa State has an opportunity to stage an upset.

Freshman Mu-Jie Tzeng boasts an 8-3 record on the No. 4 and No. 5 singles courts, but no other player with more than one match played has a winning record for the Bears.

The Cyclone depth has been improving throughout the season, giving Iowa State the perfect formula to defeat the heavy favorites. Junior Stanislava Shulzhenko is riding a two-match win streak despite the team losses, and sophomore Suzanie Pretorius looked competitive in Kansas last weekend after winning against the Red Raiders.

Things won’t get any easier for Iowa State tennis after going to Waco, as a trip north to face off against No. 19 TCU (10-1) will likely prove to be the Cyclones’ toughest challenge yet.

After losing the first match of the season against Arizona State 4-2, TCU has won its last ten matches. The combined scores of those ten matches? 40-1, with the one loss being a dropped doubles point against No. 43 Arizona.

The Horned Frogs have no holes throughout their roster. TCU is led by junior Raquel Caballero Chica, the 80th-ranked player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s national poll. Chica has just a 3-1 record this season, but that’s due to the fact that the majority of her matches go unfinished due to quicker victories in the lower courts.

The Cyclones’ best opportunity to steal a win against the Horned Frogs may be through reversing the trend in doubles matches.

Iowa State has lost its last six doubles matches, but if the team wants to surprise TCU, then they’ll have to figure out how to win the elusive doubles point. If the Cyclones can win the doubles point, all it will take is a few good bounces and Iowa State can win its first conference match of the season.

The Cyclones will take on the Mean Green less than 24 hours later, facing North Texas (10-5) at 10 a.m. Monday.

North Texas, much like the Horned Frogs, can rely on their depth in their matchup against the Cyclones. The Mean Green have a win percentage of .700 or better on the first, second, fifth and sixth singles courts.

Fortunately for the Cyclones, the No. 3 and No. 4 courts are where the Cyclones have succeeded for most of the season. If Iowa State wants to put an end to its current skid, victory in the middle courts will be critical.

Although the Cyclones have three difficult matches ahead of them this weekend, the motivation to end their losing streak and return to the win column should give Iowa State an extra push.

The Cyclones will have their first match of the weekend against Baylor at noon Friday. Live results can be found on the Iowa State Athletics website.