After every few big points, senior co-captain Malcolm Scatliffe would tell himself "Fight!" as he walked back to baseline. The No. 47 Penn State men's tennis team could have used a little more of that fight after dropping the doubles point to No. 4 Ohio State in a 5-2 defeat yesterday at the Sarni Tennis Center. The Nittany Lions (13-3, 3-3 Big Ten) came out on fire against the Buckeyes in doubles, holding serve with some of the nation's top players, especially at the No. 1 spot.

Senior co-captain Mark Barry and freshman Adam Slagter faced off with No. 2 ranked Scott Green and Ross Wilson of Ohio State. The duo from Penn State stayed right with the two-time national champions and even had a chance to break Green's serve for a 8-6 victory. The Buckeyes were able to hold serve putting the ball into the hands of Slagter.

The Penn State freshman was down 0-30, then was able to fight back to deuce. However, he ended up double faulting on game point and eventually had his serve broken as the Buckeyes went up 8-7. Wilson was able to hold his serve to win the match 9-7, clinching the doubles point for Ohio State.

"It definitely builds confidence, but I felt kind of bad for Barry because I was the one who got broken, and he played so well the whole match," Slagter said of his brush with knocking off the nation's No. 2 doubles team. "We felt that we were in their service games better than they were in ours. They have been together for so long and that's why they won, because they won the big points."

The loss of all three doubles points took the wind out of the sails for the Lions, who saw all six singles players drop their first sets. Slagter may have felt the disappointment from the doubles the hardest as his defeat gave the Buckeyes a 2-0 lead, saying he personally felt the effects of the doubles point early in his match.

"In college tennis one of the tough things for a freshman is to deal with the disappointment of fighting your tail off without getting the results you wanted and now you have to go at it in singles," Penn State coach Bill Potoczny said.

The two seniors on the squad were able to shake off their slow start and forced third sets in the Nos. 1 and 2 singles spots, earning wins at both.

"Maybe next time in that situation they can look out how we played, we didn't play out best in the first set, but we both fought back and worked to win," Barry said.

At the first spot, Barry was able to defeat Klingemann, the country's No. 76 singles player, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, to avoid a sweep by the Buckeyes. With all eyes on Scatliffe, the senior broke freshman Bryan Koniecko, the No. 49 player in the country, to force a third set. Then while being down 0-4 in the third set, Scatliffe turned it on, coming back for a 7-5 victory in the third set, winning 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

"I always play better when people are watching -- I like the pressure," Scatliffe said. "It just shows that we can compete with anybody at any time, we just need to find a way to get four points."

Although the Lions avoided a sweep against the No. 4 team in the country, the loss was disappointing for a contest that they felt could have gone their way.

"In my mind this was not a moral victory by any stretch," Potoczny said.