The culprit was the doubles point, just like it has been all season.

When Indiana jumped out to the lead over Penn State (6-14, Big Ten 1-10) at the Big Ten women's tennis championships yesterday, it was through the doubles point.

And the Nittany Lions, facing an uphill battle, succumbed, 4-1.

If the Lions had been able to pull out the crucial doubles point, it may have been a different story.

Freshman Megan Marton took out Indiana's Linda Tran, giving Penn State its first point and a flicker of hope.

But losses in singles play by freshman Sarah Spence, junior Judy Wang and senior Rebecca Ho sealed the Lions' fate. In the Big Ten tournament, when teams face the possibility of four matches in four days, play is stopped once one team gets four points.

Wang and Spence, playing at the five and six spots, respectively, were thoroughly dominated, both losing 6-2, 6-1.

"I was very happy to see those wins at five and six," Indiana head coach Lin Loring said. "One of the things we stress is that when you have someone down, you have to choke them and not let them back up."

Ho's loss, in the final match of her Penn State career, was, in a way, symbolic. One of the conference's top players throughout her career, Ho lost to one of the Big Ten's rising stars in freshman Inga Radel, and in the process passed on the torch.

"I was a little nervous because this was my first match at No.1 and it was at home, but it went well," Radel said.

When play was stopped, however, two Lion players, freshman Maaria Husain and sophomore Leigh Ann Merryman, were leading their matches in the third set and were looking good for wins. Maybe they would have pulled it out.

But it was the doubles point that made the difference.

Today and the entire season.

In 11 Big Ten matches, of which Penn State only won one, the Lions lost the doubles point 10 times. Time and time again, Penn State put itself in a hole and time and time again it cost the Lions. Penn State women's tennis coach Buffy Baker stressed it all season long. The key was and always is the doubles point. Yesterday's match drove the point home.

In a season that started with so much promise for Penn State, ending it the first round of the conference tournament is no doubt disappointing. But this is a young team and each action this year has to be looked at with an eye toward the future.

"I'm very impressed with the way this team played, especially the way the freshman stepped up," Baker said. "I told this group at the team banquet that I've never had a team that clicked and came together like this one."

Too bad it didn't translate into results.