Following a momentous three-week period, the Penn State men's tennis team (11-12, 3-7) finished its 2002 campaign on a sour note.

After winning its first Big Ten match in nearly a year and a half and then going on to win three in a row, the Nittany Lions headed to Illinois this past weekend in hopes of continuing their winning ways. Unfortunately for the Lions, No. 3 Illinois and Northwestern stood in their way. Penn State lost to the best team in the Big Ten on Saturday when it fell 7-0 to the Fighting Illini.

"We were very disappointed that we couldn't come away with the win but realistically we wanted to play as well as we could," assistant coach Bill Potoczny said.

Illinois went on to defeat Ohio State on Sunday to clinch its sixth consecutive Big Ten title. Penn State knew it was going to be in for a battle and felt it simply lost to a better team.

"We really thought we played well but Illinois is just an amazing team," freshman Clint Keithly said.

The lone bright spot on Saturday for the Lions was the doubles tandem of Brad Nudell and Matt Frakes, who pushed the Illini's Mike Kosta and Nathan Zeder to two match points in a tiebreaker before losing 9-8.

The loss also included a defeat by senior captain and Big Ten Player of the Week Jamie Gresh, who fell 7-6, 6-4 to Phil Stolt. After pushing its way into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association top 75 for the first time all season, Penn State wanted to come out and prove that it belonged.

Northwestern was a more realistic opponent for the Lions, who held a considerable amount of confidence heading into the match. However, that confidence didn't parlay itself into a victory.

The Lions had excellent doubles play and managed to take the doubles point with wins from the No. 1 tandem of Gresh and Keithly and the No. 2 doubles team of Nudell and Frakes. Gresh also got back on track in singles, winning his match 6-1, 6-1. However, it wasn't enough as Penn State fell 4-3.

"The opportunity was there, it certainly wouldn't have been an easy win but it was there," Potoczny said.

Following the two defeats the Lions dropped their record below .500 and their spirits momentarily fell as well. However, they know that a strong showing at the upcoming Big Ten Championship could cure all their problems.

"If you can go out and play well at the Big Tens you can say the season was a positive," Potoczny said. "There's nobody in there that we're going to play that we shouldn't be competitive with but we know we're going to be in for a dog fight."