The Penn State women's tennis team started the first round of the Big Ten tournament yesterday, where it defeated No. 9 Michigan State, 4-2.

The Nittany Lions will carry on in the tournament quarterfinals against No. 1 seed Northwestern at 10 a.m. today at the University of Minnesota.

With a 5-2 victory against Michigan State earlier this season, the Lions were expecting a tough match.

"They are a good team, and we are expecting something better," Penn State coach Buffy Baker said. "We caught them on a down day [in the season]."

Yesterday, the Spartans earned the doubles point, but Lions Junior Jenny Shular and senior Sasha Abraham won their sixth consecutive doubles match with an 8-3 victory over Sarah Andrews and Stephanie Kebler.

The Lions were not successful during the last two doubles matches and that cost the team.

Sophomores Dorothy Dohanics and Leyla Morzan dropped an 3-8 match to Christine Bader and Christine Milliken, while freshman Lauren McCarthy and senior Andreea Niculescu were defeated by Ana Milosavljevic and Pascale Schnitzer, 6-8.

"There were times when we aggressed then stepped back, and they did the same," Baker said. "They stepped forward at the right time."

The Lions quickly evened the score at 1-1 with a victory as Niculescu prevailed over Bader, 6-4, 6-4.

Penn State took its first lead of the match at 2-1 when McCarthy defeated Milosavljevic. After taking the first set, McCarthy had a 3-1 lead, but Milosavljevic won the next five games to win the second set. In the final set, McCarthy came back with a 6-3 win, to take the match.

The match between Shular and Kebler had two tiebreakers, but Shular prevailed both times, notching a straight-set win.

Baker was happy with the amount of momentum the Lions had during singles.

"We swept them in singles," Baker said. "It was a great college match and very competitive."

Abraham had the lone loss for Penn State after winning the first set.

Up 2-1 in the second set, Schnitzer won five of the next six games to win the second set and took the third as well.

As the Lions face Northwestern today, they go into the match not fearing the top-ranked Wildcats.

"You walk out there believing that you can beat this team, taking a point at a time," Baker said.