The Penn State women's tennis (7-9, 2-4) team dropped two Big Ten matches to the University of Illinois (11-5, 4-1) and Purdue (8-9, 3-3) this weekend.
The Lion's faced tough competition from both schools, which featured several nationally ranked players.
The Nittany Lion's came up short against No. 24 Illinois, with a 6-1 loss on Saturday in Urbana, Ill. The Lions struggled with singles play, going winless against the Illini.
Sophomore Megan Marton lost at No. 1 singles to No. 66 nationally ranked Jennifer McGaffigan, 6-2, 6-2. Junior Leigh Ann Merryman also struggled at her No. 2 singles match going, 6-2, 6-3, against No. 106 ranked Tiffany Eklov. Freshman Lindsay Downing fought for a win, but came up short after taking her No.6 singles match to three sets 6-3, 3-6, 11-9, against No. 15 ranked Michelle Webb.
The Lion's did come up with the coveted doubles point after winning at No. 2 and No. 3.
The No. 2 duo of Marton and Senior Judy Wang defeated Eva Choe and Eldina Falzlic 8-6 and sophomore Sarah Spence and Downing shut down Eklov and Brianna Knue 8-5 at No. 3 doubles.
The Lion's struggles with singles play continued on Sunday with a 5-2 conference loss to No. 60 Purdue.
The women were only able to pull off two wins in the singles competition. Marton scored a No. 1 singles win with a three set romp of Boilermaker Gretchen Haynor, 7-5, 6-4, 10-8. Downing followed suit defeating Missy Wright, 6-4, 6-4 at No. 5 singles.
Merryman lost a heartbreaking marathon match at No. 2 singles, going 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 against Amy Walgenbach.
The Lion's weekend troubles continued, going 0-3 in doubles play against the Boilermakers.
The team of Merryman and sophomore Maaira Husain lost at No. 1 doubles 8-2 to Wright and Lara Burgarello. Marton and Wang lost their No. 2 match, 8-6 to Melissa Woods and Shawna Zuccarini.
The No. 3 doubles win was taken by the team of Melissa Iqbal and Haynor, 8-2 over Spence and Downing for the Lions.
The Lions will continue their conference play this weekend with home matches against No. 17 Northwestern, which is on a 29 win-streak in the Big Ten and Wisconsin.
