Two more Big Ten matches, two more Big Ten losses.

This scenario is becoming all too familiar for the Penn State women's tennis team.

The Lady Lions lost to Minnesota 6-3 on Saturday and followed suit yesterday with a 7-2 loss to Iowa. The losses drop the Lady Lions to 0-5 overall and in the Big Ten.

Despite remaining winless, the Lady Lions continued to show improvement, especially during the Minnesota loss.

Although they have not received national consideration in the rankings, the Gophers, coming off of a 4-19 season, have turned things around this season.

With the victory over Penn State, Minnesota improved to 5-2 overall, and a suprising 4-1 in the Big Ten conference. The Lady Lions have now played against the top four teams in the Big Ten.

Penn State Coach Sue Whiteside was pleased with her team's performance against the resurgent Gophers. She was particularly pleased with they way her team hustled.

"That's what we stress in practice," Whiteside said of her team's effort on Saturday. "That's how matches are won. We know that every time we go out there, we have to be competitive for every point."

And the Lady Lions actually came close to getting enough of those points to walk away with a win.

In No. 3 singles, Minnesota's Susan Culik barely got by Jen Farrington 4-6, 6-4, 6-0. In doubles, the Gophers' No. 1 team also won in a squeaker, beating Penn State's No. 1 team of Kerri Kohr and Tammy Okins-Nguyen 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

Had the Lady Lions been able to pull of those two matches, they would have sent the Gophers back to Minneapolis on the wrong side of a 5-4 score.

"Maybe, overall, we need to change something because we just don't seem to be winning our big points," Farrington said. "In the end, they seem to win that big game."

Yesterday, the Iowa Hawkeyes thumped the Lady Lions by a 7-2 margin. Whiteside wasn't as encouraged about the weekend's second loss.

She felt that some of the players came out a little flat after Saturday's tough match. But she wasn't ready to use that as an excuse.

"We really should be used to that," she said about the Lady Lions' tough schedule, in which the players get few breaks. "You have to be mentally tough. None of these (Big Ten) schools are going to give us any easy points."

Kohr agreed, citing the team's up-and-down play.

"The matches could have gone either way," Kohr said. "As a team, we need to be a little more consistent."

She also felt that the team could benefit from a few wins.

"We need to get some wins under our belt," she said. "Our confidence is a little low right now."

Junior Denise Robison turned in an impressive 2-0 performance over the weekend. She is filling in for Kristin Kovalik, who did not see action.