After Marquette lost 5-2 to DePaul in the team's first Big East game Tuesday, men's tennis head coach Steve Rodecap was not going to let his players leave the court and forget about the defeat.

He gathered them in a group and talked to them for more than 40 minutes after the match, at times becoming quite animated.

"(The talk) was about being tougher, and I think we all lacked that today," said senior Ian Kawas.

After winning two of the three doubles matches, Marquette headed into the singles play with a 1-0 lead and perhaps a bit too much confidence, Kawas said.

That confidence was quickly shattered when DePaul took the first set in all six matches, and across the board, the Golden Eagles found themselves fighting from behind, much to Rodecap's surprise.

"I was as shocked as could be," Rodecap said. "I felt confident with how we were playing."

But it was not as if Marquette got blown away immediately. Several players, including both seniors, had opportunities to win the first set in their singles matches.

Vedrickas found himself down 5-4 and facing a first set loss in No. 1 singles, but with DePaul's Eric Huffman serving, Vedrickas was a break point away from tying the set.

Then Huffman took control. His next serve was an ace, bringing the score to deuce. Vedrickas could barely get a racket on the next serve, deflecting the ball into the next court. Huffman won the next point and the set, and cruised to a 6-2 second-set win for the match.

Rodecap said that Vedrickas displayed a lack of senior leadership in his loss, especially playing adjacent to the two freshmen.

The freshmen "need to look down at Eigis and see a dog fight, see him being feisty," Rodecap said.

The team's other senior leader, Kawas, was having problems of his own. A hard fought battle in the first set came down to a tie-breaker. After going down 5-0, Kawas took five of the next six points to bring the score back to 6-5. But he could not continue that momentum and lost the next point and the set. Like Vedrickas, Kawas played an uninspired second set, losing 6-0.

"I think what really happened is I lost a couple key points," Kawas said. "He played a lot better when he got on top of me."

After going down a set, Marquette lost five of the six singles matches. Their inability to fight back frustrated Rodecap.

"When you get punched in the gut there are two ways you can react," Rodecap said. "You can put your fists up and fight or you can run away."

The Blue Demons delivered the blows, and the Golden Eagles seemed unwilling to respond. If Marquette wants to avoid these types of losses in the future, they are going to need to turn in their running shoes for some boxing gloves.