March 3, 2002

The University of Missouri women's tennis team split a weekend road trip as they defeated Drake 5-2 on Friday, but fell to Iowa State 4-3 on Saturday.

Against Drake, Mizzou swept the three doubles matches to earn the doubles point and then took four of the six singles matches.

Despite claiming the doubles point by sweeping the three doubles matches against Iowa State, the Tigers were only able to win two of the six singles matches.

Sophomore Urska Juric, and junior Kristina Olshanskaya were to only Tigers to record singles victories on the day.

"We didn't play well, and no one other than Iowa State can say much good about today," Missouri Head Coach Blake Starkey said. "This was a disappointing 4-3 loss. Inconsistent performances have been our biggest issue this semester, and the same was true today. We are talented, but we are young, and we played very young today. The Big 12 is a tough place to grow up, but we need to grow up.

"The kids are frustrated, and they should be - they know they are better than the results are showing. As a team, we just need to put it together on the same day with teams that are similar to us. I have confidence in our players. This will be an intense week of preparation and we expect to play well next weekend."

Missouri is now 4-6 on the season and will return home on Friday to take on Oklahoma State at 2 p.m. in the Green Tennis Center at Mizzou.