The women's tennis team entered last weekend hoping to move within a game of .500. Wisconsin and Rutgers had different plans.

Marquette fell to 2-7 in dual action after No. 51 Wisconsin swept Friday's match 7-0, and Rutgers narrowly won 4-3 Sunday. After taking a 3-2 lead Sunday, the Golden Eagles faltered in No.1 and No. 4 singles to fall short.

"We couldn't close it out," said a disappointed Jody Bronson, Marquette's head coach. "We took the lead, but we couldn't make the most of that opportunity, and came out on the short end."

Marquette lost the doubles point to go down 0-1, but was poised for victory after Laren Little, Erin Watkins and Francina Bonnelly won the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 singles matches, respectively.

Then things unraveled quickly.

Sensing that their teammates had just lost on the court next to theirs, the Scarlet Knights remained composed. In the No. 1 match Marquette's Maria Calbeto won the second set 6-4 to force a third set. But Rutgers' Katrina Elder-Bush took control in the deciding set and won 6-1.

That brought the score to a 3-3 tie with Marquette's Dominika Dabrowski facing Ketevan Shmakova in the No. 4 match. This time it was the Rutgers player who won the second set to force a third. But Shmakova was able to carry the momentum into the final set and won 6-3 to give the Scarlet Knights the 4-3 win.

"Everyone pitched in for us," Rutgers head coach Ben Bucca said Sunday. "To pull out a match on the road, a match that could easily have gone either way, it's huge for us. I think it says something about our team, to travel all this way and pull one out like this."

As for the Golden Eagles, the team needs to carry over techniques from practice to the matches.

"We didn't really play doubles the way we know how," Bronson said. "We were out there just hitting balls at certain points, not really trying to utilize our strategy. We need to learn to stick with what is working in a match until the opposition proves that those methods aren't working. That's something we really need to get after in practice."

Bronson can accept losing a close battle so long as she feels her team brings intensity to the court. What she cannot accept is watching her team show up flat. She felt they did just that in Friday's match versus the Badgers, who improved to 3-4 with the win on Friday.

"We didn't come ready to play Friday. Very, very disappointing," she said.

Marquette failed to win even one singles set, a testament to the Badgers' prowess. The Golden Eagles lost each of its three doubles matches 8-1.

"On four of six courts we accomplished our goals," Wisconsin head coach Patti Henderson said. "We applied pressure throughout those four matches. Before we came in (to Milwaukee), I told them that we needed to sustain our level of play. We did that."

Marquette is pitted against Cincinnati and Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, Michigan this weekend. If the squad can't at least split, it may find themselves in a hole too big to dig out of.