You can only have so many moral victories or hard fought losses, and that fact is not lost on the Penn State (7-8, 0-3) men's tennis team.

After suffering two consecutive 7-0 loses to top Big Ten teams Ohio State and most recently Minnesota the team is ready to corner its prey and capture its first Big Ten win.

Senior captain Jamie Gresh sees Iowa (9-4 1-1) as the perfect opportunity.

"We're at the point where we're 0-3 in the Big Ten and we've got to turn it around and it's got to be this week," he said.

The match will be held in Iowa tomorrow at 1 p.m. and is the first road match the team has had in three weeks.

The Hawkeyes pose a reasonable target for the Nittany Lions.

"We're very confident going into the Iowa match because we feel we've done a lot of good things against the top Big Ten teams," sophomore Todd Stecko said.

"Jamie (Gresh) is better than their No. 1 plus I think our four and five singles are much better."

The fact that this is an away match has the team believing that the road atmosphere will actually benefit it.

The two tough defeats both came in front of home crowds, so the team hopes that a change of scenery will only help matters.

"I think there are less distractions," Gresh said. "Going away, there is just one purpose and one goal."

Iowa is known for having extremely fast courts, which is something that the team has been focusing on in practice this past week.

Stecko said the team has to be prepared for short serves and quick points.

"The courts are the fastest courts in the Big Ten so we've been working on return serves and blocking serves," he said.

The Lions hope to string together some conference victories in an attempt to get into the top 75.

Penn State is only one of two Big Ten teams not listed in the rankings, the other being Indiana.

"It's always in the back of your mind," Gresh said. "You play to see where you stand so when you play against one of those teams it makes you hungry and it makes you want it that much more."

The goal has been set and the team prepared. Now all that stands in its way is the elusiveness of that Big Ten victory.

"We're confident, I feel if we play the way we are capable of playing the match is ours," Gresh said. "We cannot settle for losing this."