The Penn State women's tennis team's Big Ten season is off to another shaky start after the Nittany Lions dropped two matches on the road this past weekend at Illinois and Purdue.

After last year's conference season, in which the Lions failed to win a match, a feeling of déjà vu was in the air this weekend. The team got off to another 0-3 Big Ten start, losing Saturday 5-2 against the Fighting lllini, and then suffering through a 7-0 shutout the next day against the Boilermakers.

This was indeed the case, as the Boilermakers ran with the momentum from doubles to sweep the six singles matches. The Lions' tightest match was at sixth singles, where Jenny Schular dropped her first match of the season in a three-set thriller, 6-1, 3-6, 10-8.

The previous day, the Lions had endured more of the same problems. The team was unable to take advantage of opportunities in both doubles and singles. While both Schular and No. 5 Andreea Nicalescu got wins, the team lost the rest of the singles matches and couldn't gain any ground on Illinois.

"It was just a matter of too little too late because we definitely had opportunities," Baker said. "The difference was us taking a little more of a calculated risk."

Husain in particular endured a difficult weekend, dropping both of her matches in straight sets. Baker said that it wasn't a matter of Husain playing badly, she was just up against opponents who were very much on their games. The losses were Husain's first since Feb. 4.

The losses this weekend mean that the Lions will have to wait another week to possibly win their first Big Ten match in more than two years. The key this week for the Lions in practice will be learning from these matches, especially Purdue.