The Penn State's women's tennis team is seeing its season slip away, but it's also seeing itself improving and playing better tennis than it has all season.

"I think sometimes we get too focused on the outcome in sports," Penn State women's tennis coach Buffy Baker said. "We're try to keep reminding ourselves that we're doing the right things and improving."

This weekend Penn State (6-14) was shut out 7-0 at No. 11 Northwestern, before being beaten 6-1 at No. 52 Wisconsin yesterday. While disappointed with the losses, Baker said the team has shown a lot of improvement.

"This was really a great match for us, even though we lost," Baker said. "We keep seeing that we're making improvements."

The Nittany Lions played poorly in doubles on Saturday against Northwestern, but showed some fight against the Wildcats in singles. Northerwestern's Cristelle Grier and Jessica Rush quickly beat Leigh Ann Merryman and Megan Marton in the doubles and singles. Greir is the No. 3 singles player in the country, while Rush is ranked No. 55.

"They were strong at the top, but the others spots could have gone either way," Baker said.

In other matches though, the Lions were much more competitive. In the other four singles matches, the Lions were able to win a set and force a third set. Unfortunately, all four Lions lost.

The singles strength did not carry over into yesterday's match against the Badgers, in fact the Lions flip-flopped.

The doubles was much more competitive, though the team ultimately lost all three matches. Most of the Lions were weaker in singles, however.

Only junior Maaria Husain came away from the match with a win after extending her match to a third set.

The loss leaves the Lions without a Big Ten win and only two more chances to win a conference game.

"For sure its something we want, but we're not talking about it right now," Baker said. "We're doing the right things and I feel like we're just maturing late."