There should be no surprise that in losing its first doubles point of the season, the No. 60 Penn State men's tennis team would coincide with its first loss of the spring.

The Nittany Lions (6-1, 1-1 Big Ten) completed their first weekend of conference play, coming away with a split against No. 67 Purdue on Saturday and No. 3 Illinois yesterday. The Lions were able to win the doubles point against the Boilermakers, carrying them to a 7-0 sweep for their first Big Ten win.

However, in yesterday's 7-0 loss at Illinois, the Lions were fighting an uphill battle after dropping that doubles point.

With four nationally ranked players, and three All-America candidates, according to Penn State head coach Bill Potoczny, the Illini were able to provide strong competition at every spot against Penn State's solid singles lineup.

The nation's No. 2 player, Ryler DeHeart, who Penn State senior Mark Barry battled last year at the No. 1 spot, was playing at No. 3 singles against junior Ryan Berger this time around. The Illini could still insert a top-10 player against Barry, exploiting their depth and talent. Barry lost a tough 6-4, 6-4 match to No. 6 Kevin Anderson.

"As far as talent goes, nobody in the country has what they have," Potoczny said about Illinois. "They've got guys with enough talent at the bottom of their lineup who could be No. 1 somewhere else -- they can hurt you anywhere in the lineup."

Two Penn State players, senior Malcolm Scatliffe and freshman Adam Slagter at the No. 2 and 5 spots, respectively, were able to force third sets against the stacked Illinois lineup.

"Some guys really fought hard, regardless of whether they were playing great or not," Potoczny said. "I hope this can be a learning experience for us.

"Up and down the lineup, the guys can look back and see a handful of points, that maybe if they played a little better or a little smarter, that they could play with some of the great teams in the country."

While the Lions were never able to recover from being down a point against the Illini, their doubles play has been improving -- something that should pay off as the Big Ten season continues.

"No. 1 doubles has been outstanding," Potoczny said of Barry and Slagter, who were leading the Illini's nationally ranked pairing 6-5 when the match was ended because the Lions had lost the other two matches. "Both guys are playing with the right attitude for doubles, they're playing offensive-minded and taking it to the other guys. They're not playing reactive tennis, it's aggressive."

The improvement in doubles was more noticeably seen in the match with Purdue, as the Lions were finally able to win the point against the Boilermakers, sweeping all three matches.

"The bottom line was our guys did some good things, they returned well and were able to put the pressure on," Potoczny said. "The doubles point gave us that one-point lead going into singles where Purdue came out feisty. It's helpful whenever you have to weather the storm like that."