Think the Marquette women's tennis team is tired of facing Big Ten opponents?

The Golden Eagles dropped a 5-2 decision to Wisconsin on Wednesday, their third straight loss to a member of the Big Ten Conference and their fifth loss to Big Ten teams overall. Last weekend, Marquette dropped a 5-2 decision to Iowa and a 7-0 decision against Indiana.

With the loss, the Golden Eagles fell to 1-7 on the season. Wisconsin improved to 3-4.

"It's not the ideal situation to be playing a lot of tough teams initially, but if you're going to play them, you've got to learn," head coach Jody Bronson said. "That's what you're getting, you have to learn how to handle it, and hopefully those tough matches will pay off."

The match started well enough for the Golden Eagles, with the sophomore tandem of Margaret Wilson and Elly Strother opening with an 8-5 win at No. 3 doubles. Christina Ruiz and Maria Calbeto dropped an 8-5 decision at No. 1 doubles, but at No. 2 doubles, Rachel Hush and Shannon Brown opened up a 5-2 lead over Wisconsin's Morgan Tuttle and Chelsea Nusslock.

Hush and Metzler, playing as a doubles team for the first time this season, could not hold that lead, however, dropping seven of the last nine games to lose the match—and the doubles point—9-7.

The loss seemed to sap the energy out of the Golden Eagles at the start of singles play. All six Marquette players dropped their first game.

"Usually when we win the doubles point, we go into singles play with a lot of confidence," Calbeto said. "When we lose it, we just feel.just disappointed in general because we've been working hard on our doubles."

Calbeto rallied from a 2-1 hole in the first set of her singles match against Carpenter, winning five straight games – and visibly frustrating her opponent – en route to a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

"The first set, I played really well; I felt really well," Calbeto said of her first match at No. 1 singles. "In the second set it kind of heated up. (Carpenter) got overruled once.I thought she made a few bad calls. I just had to keep my focus."

Ruiz followed suit at No. 2 singles, handling Emese Kardhordo 6-4, 6-7, 10-5 for Marquette's second singles point.

But those were the only two points the Golden Eagles would register on the night. They lost the final four singles matches.

Hush dropped the first three games of her singles match against Jessica Seyferth before being forced to retire with a shin injury. Margaret Wilson was the only other Golden Eagle to push her match to three sets, falling 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 to Nusslock.

"From top to bottom, you know every one of your kids is getting pushed to their limits (in these games)," Bronson said. "You just have to watch how they respond.we're getting thrown right in the fire."