The chances were there, but the Penn State women's tennis team just couldn't cash in.

Losing five crushing three-set matches, the Nittany Lions saw their NCAA tournament dreams come crashing down as they fell to Michigan State and Michigan both by 5-2 scores.

Against both the Spartans (11-7, Big Ten 3-3) and the Wolverines (10-8, 3-4), Penn State grabbed early leads, only to see their advantage wasted.

On Saturday, playing a revitalized Michigan State program, Penn State (6-9, 1-5) picked up a rare point from the doubles competition, something that Penn State coach Buffy Baker stressed heading into the weekend, to take a 1-0 lead into singles. Penn State needed only a split of the six singles matches to leave with the win, but it could not get it done.

Three times, Lion players won the first set and three times their Michigan State opponents dug deep and came back to pull out wins.

Freshmen Megan Marton and Sarah Spence and junior Judy Wang all were up one set and all failed to close the deal.

With Wang and Spence both dropping sets in the tiebreaker and Marton failing to drum up the courage that carried her to victory at Old Dominion last Sunday, the Lions succumbed to the Spartans' pressure.

"This is a match we would have lost 4-3 earlier this season," Michigan State head coach Tim Bauer said. "We had some people struggle today, but they still managed to come back and win. Physically and mentally, we're starting to come through."

The win gave the Spartans their third Big Ten victory, the most since posting four in 1993.

With a chance for redemption the next day against Michigan, the Lions again lacked the fortitude to pull out the win. Jumping out to a 2-1 lead after singles victories from Spence and sophomore Leigh Ann Merryman, Penn State managed to lose the last four singles matches, including two three-set losses to hand the Wolverines the win.

Wang lost another tough match, dropping the third and deciding set, 7-6, after winning the first 6-3.

Merryman, the lone bright spot on the trip by going 2-0, raised her record to 22-7 including 4-2 in Big Ten competition.

The 0-2 weekend for Penn State will be costly for the Lions when NCAA bids are handed out, especially with Northwestern, the class of the conference, remaining on the schedule.