Sports can be downright unusual at some points. Take for instance the first time the Penn State men's tennis team lost back-to-back matches last season. That date was April 14, 2006 when after a loss to Ohio State, the Nittany Lions fell to Minnesota.

Now jump to April 14, 2007.

On Saturday, No. 37 Penn State lost back-to-back matches for the first time this season, when Michigan State upset the Lions, 4-3, in East Lansing.

The Spartans (11-13, 2-6 Big Ten) were coming off of their first conference win of the season, beating Iowa last weekend.

Michigan State opened the match by doing something every team that has beaten Penn State (15-4, 5-3) has done: win the doubles point.

The Spartans team of No. 24 Adam Monich and Nick Rinks won against the No. 41 Penn State duo of senior Ryan Berger -- playing his last match in his home state of Michigan -- and junior Michael James.

Michigan State's Michael Flowers and Alex Forger then knocked off sophomore Adam Slagter and freshman Guillaume St-Maurice, 8-4.

"I was really disappointed how we competed in doubles," Penn State head coach Todd Doebler said. "We didn't have great energy and didn't execute well."

Early in singles play, it looked as though the doubles point would not make much of a difference.

Freshman Ryan Gormley shut out Michigan State's Jason Norville in straight sets.

Berger defeated Monich after he retired in the first set. Senior Bradley Hunter won against Scott Rasmussen in straight sets at No. 6 singles. Penn State was up in the match, 3-1.

Michigan State then pulled off three straight singles wins to win the match. All three matches went into the third set.

No. 102 James faced No. 59 Rinks at the first singles spot. James took the first set winning, 7-6. However, Rinks came back and won the last two sets, 6-2 and 6-4.

The final singles match was between the Lions' Brendan Lynch and Michigan State's John Allare. Playing in the No. 4 singles, Lynch took the first set, 6-3. The second set went into a tiebreaker with Allare winning, 7-6 (3). Allare then took the match and the win for the Spartans in the third set, beating Lynch, 6-3.

"I don't think we competed as well as we could. We got up 3-1 and all three guys didn't compete as well," Doebler said.

After losing to Illinois last Sunday and with No. 3 Ohio State coming to Penn State on Friday, Doebler said this loss brings no pressure on his team. In fact, it may be the opposite.

"A loss like this will motivate every guy on this team to finish strong," Doebler said.