The Penn State women's tennis team was able to dig itself out of a hole against Kansas on Friday, but couldn't get itself out of the same situation Sunday against Yale.

After losing the doubles point to the Jayhawks, the Nittany Lions stepped up in singles and put in a clutch performance to pull out a 4-3 victory that was sealed by No. 1 Maaria Husain's 6-4, 6-3 singles victory.

Against Yale on Sunday, though, the team got itself into the same situation, losing all three doubles matches. Even with a strong Penn State effort in singles to keep the match close, the Bulldogs were a steadier team and eventually wore the Lions down, winning 4-3.

Doubles play had been the team's focus all week in practice, and while Penn State had chances to win each doubles match against Kansas, the pressure got to the team. And it couldn't get past it.

"We were just panicking when the pressure was on, and then not feeling the confidence to be executing when the pressure was on," Penn State coach Buffy Baker said.

The team's singles matches turned things around, though, and the Lions were able to get wins from No. 3 Sasha Abraham, No. 5 Andreea Nicalescu, No. 6 Jenny Schular and Husain in the deciding match against Kansas.

Husain said she did well in dealing with the pressure of having the deciding match.

"I definitely think I feed off of that, and when your teammates are supporting you, there is just an energy there," Husain said.

The team would need all the support it could get after dropping the doubles point for the third match in a row against Yale. In the early stages of singles play, though, it looked as though the team would stage another comeback.

Abraham and Schular both won their matches, and No. 2 Sarah Spence and No. 5 Andreea Nicalescu got into a pair of three-set battles. After Nicalescu and No. 4 Katelyn BeVard dropped their matches, the team needed Spence and Husain to pull out a win.

Spence won the first set of her match 6-4, but was sent to a tiebreak in the second. But after fighting off four match points, Yale's Rashmee Patil's strong baseline game wore down Spence. Patil took that set and then used that momentum to cruise through the third, 6-3.

"It was a tough, extremely physical match, a lot of long points," Spence said. "I thought either person could have won [Sunday]."

The loss to Yale dropped the team's record to 3-2 overall. While singles continued to keep the Lions in the match, the doubles play remains a glaring weakness for the team. Baker tried to change the lineup at second and third doubles in both matches, with limited results.

"Singles, it was a great college match," Baker said. "Doubles was very disappointing. We've just got to play around with [the lineup]. At one we're competing fairly well, but at two and three, we're going to keep playing around."