It's the middle of the Big Ten season and time for the Penn State women's tennis team to make a U-turn on its less-than-stellar conference record.

With their losses last weekend against No. 33 Wisconsin and No. 2 Northwestern, the Nittany Lions record dropped to 5-9 overall, 0-5 in the Big Ten. The team has not won a regular season conference match since March 2003. The Lions will look to get that elusive first conference win this weekend when they host Ohio State (6-13, 1-3) at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Sarni Tennis Center. The Buckeyes have lost their last two matches, to Illinois and Purdue, after upsetting No. 65 Minnesota on March 27.

A win against Ohio State would be sweet revenge for the Lions after being shut out by the Buckeyes last season. Now that Ohio State has fallen out of the rankings for the first time this season, the Lions will be looking to pounce on the Buckeyes while they are down.

After playing its first five matches against some of the toughest teams in the conference, Penn State will begin a seemingly lighter second half of the season with this weekend's match. Of the Lions' remaining opponents, none are ranked in the top 35, with the highest ranked being No. 38 Michigan.

Even though the team knows that it now has definite opportunities to turn its season around, it also knows that looking past the teams ahead of it would be a huge mistake.

"Even though we're playing a team nowhere near Northwestern this weekend, we have to prepare ourselves in the same way so that we don't have the mental lapses while we're playing these teams," Penn State coach Buffy Baker said.

One of the keys to get some wins will be an increase in the team's mental toughness. Baker felt that this weakness was highlighted in contrast to the focus of Northwestern's players on Sunday. While the Lions had many opportunities against the Wildcats, Penn State's inability to execute at key moments ended up being what held it back.

"I think [Northwestern] played within themselves and that typically forces an opponent to panic," Baker said. "I don't think they have mental lapses as much as we do."

All season, the Lions have been trying to put the losses that are stacking up in the past while at the same time making sure that they gain something from each defeat. The Lions feel that with each loss, they are learning from it and gaining experience that will help them in the future. The added relief of having no expectations placed on it is also motivating the team to play in relaxed way that will hopefully bring out their best tennis.

"We have nothing to lose when we go out and play these matches," Jenny Shular said. "I actually feel it's really fun to go into competition with nothing to lose."