It can sometimes be a slow climb to being a successful team, and the Penn State women's tennis team is taking small steps each week to get itself to that point.

The ascent continued this week as the Nittany Lions fell to two difficult Big Ten opponents in matches that, while disappointing, were filled with moral victories.

"Our approach has been, we have to walk away from each match thinking we're a better team [for it]," Penn State coach Buffy Baker. "Regardless of the win or loss, we're a better team."

Unfortunately, moral victories can't be placed in the win column, and the Lions now find themselves halfway through the conference season without a win.

In yesterday's 6-1 loss to No. 2 Northwestern, the Lions competed well throughout although they were facing a stronger team.

Instead of giving up a bunch of unforced errors and allowing the Wildcats to walk through the matches, the Lions forced them to work for points and, at times, incurring frustrated yells from Northwestern.

One of the keys of the match was Northwestern's ability to stay mentally stronger in tight situations. At first doubles, Sasha Abraham and Jenny Shular stayed competitive through most of the match before eventually wilting in the last few games. This was a similar case in the other two doubles matches, where the Lions were unable to gain enough consistency throughout to pull through.

In singles, as well as doubles, the Lions were without No. 1 Maaria Husain. The senior sat out the match because she had played in a national tournament in the fall and, by NCAA rules, this forced the team to pick a Big Ten match for her to skip.

With its top player on the sidelines, the Lions struggled through the singles matches. The team dropped the top three singles matches, which all featured nationally ranked players from Northwestern, but managed to make things more interesting in the final three matches.

No. 5 Jenny Shular managed to even her match in the second set, but too many unforced errors doomed her in the final set, eventually falling 3-6, 6-3, 2-6. After being goose-egged in the first set of her match, No. 6 Kristine Harclerode settled down before eventually falling, 6-4.

The team's sole win of the day was in the final match. No. 4 Andreea Nicalescu found herself down 1-6, 0-3 before finding her game and pulling off an amazing comeback. Nicalescu won six of the last seven games and then won the match in a super-tiebreaker in place of the third set.

"I couldn't hit any shots in the first set," Nicalescu said. "At 1-6, 0-3 in the second set, I started calming down and changing my game. I think I was just more aggressive than her and wanted it more."

Two days earlier, the Lions found themselves in another difficult match with a highly ranked opponent. No. 35 Wisconsin came away with the doubles point after winning two of the three hotly contested doubles matches. The Lions lost at No. 1 and No. 3 by scores of 8-5 and 8-6, respectively. These scores ended up being the difference in the match, as the Lions picked up three of the six singles matches before finally falling, 4-3.

"We played a few loose games, and in doubles a loose game can be the match," Baker said.

With the toughest teams in the conference out of the way, the Lions are now faced with several upcoming matches, like next weekend against Ohio State, that are winnable.

"We just have to continue to play within ourselves and take it one at a time," Baker said.