Move one step forward, then take two steps back.

That's the dilemma facing the Penn State women's tennis team, as it dropped two Big Ten matches this weekend against Iowa and Minnesota after getting its first conference win of the season against Ohio State the week before.

Friday's match saw the Nittany Lions (6-11, 1-7 Big Ten) make a significant regression from its stellar singles play on April 10 against the Buckeyes. At Iowa, the team lost five of its six singles matches after having another tight outing in the doubles matches.

At No. 1 doubles, Maaria Husain and Sarah Spence put up a fight before falling in a thriller, 9-7. At No. 2, Sasha Abraham and Jenny Shular dropped a tight one, 8-6, while the No. 3 team fell, 8-2.

The team's sole win against Iowa came at No. 5, when Jenny Shular came back to win her match in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 6-5 (11). The Lions failed to gain any momentum in any of the singles matches, dropping the other five in straight sets.

Against Minnesota, the Lions played with an altered doubles lineup, but it failed to yield many positive results for the team. Husain and Shular teamed up at first doubles and found themselves in another close match before falling, 8-6. Spence and Andreea Niculescu evened up the doubles with an 8-5 win at No. 2, but the Gophers picked up the point with a decisive 8-3 win at No. 3 over Katelyn BeVard and Sasha Abraham.

The Lions played with a much stronger match in singles play and managed to hang with the Gophers throughout. Husain lost a straight set match at No.1 to give the Gophers another point, but Penn State got on the board when No. 6 BeVard came away with a 6-2, 6-2 win.

The final four matches all went the distance as the two teams brought the match to an exciting close. The Lions got two more wins when Abraham and Shular held off its opponents to win in three sets. After tying her match up with a 6-4 win in the second set, Spence was unable to keep up the momentum in the final set, eventually falling 1-6, 6-4, 1-6. Penn State's last shot to pick up another win came at No. 4, where Niculescu won the first set of her match, but then came apart in the final two sets, falling 6-2, 6-2.

The losses this weekend were a significant blow to the team's momentum, especially after the team got a huge confidence boost with its first conference win in two years over the Buckeyes.

Regrouping and learning from the losses this past weekend will be key for the team as it prepares to finish out the regular season at home against Michigan State and Michigan this weekend.