The Cornell women’s tennis team had a rough weekend, losing to Brown on Saturday in Providence, R.I., which the squad followed up with another loss on Sunday at the hands of Yale in New Haven, Conn.

On Saturday, the Red fell to No. 43-ranked Brown, 5-2.

“Brown was definitely a challenge for us,” said freshman Ryann Young. “They are a really good team, so we went into the match working really hard, trying to focus on each point at a time. Our team did our best; overall it was a really well-fought match.”

In her analysis of the match, sophomore Chrstine Ordway cited that although the results were not there, the team was still pleased to have put up such a tough fight.

“Obviously it’s very disappointing losing because the Ivy games are the most important part of season, but we pushed them pretty hard, which is good for us,” she said. “It proved to us that we really can play these teams. It just comes down to winning those few matches, which we didn’t do … It’s encouraging that we came that close.”

On Sunday, No. 35 Yale blanked Cornell, 7-0, in a match that was not quite as lopsided as the final score indicated.

“Looking back, everyone had some good points and rallies. It looked competitive, but we just didn’t have enough points go our way for any of them,” Ordway said. “We were competitive in the points, we just didn’t win enough of the big games. We didn’t win the points that mattered, which comes down to focus and preparation.”

The team seems to be taking this to heart, working hard this week in practice.

“We are going to have to prepare a lot going into this weekend against Penn and Princeton,” Ordway said.

The Red will play Penn at Reis Tennis Center on Friday and will then travel to Princeton for Sunday’s match.

“We play Penn on Friday at home. We’re really looking forward to playing them,” Ordway said. “We beat them, 6-1, last year. They are a really good team and they have gotten a lot better since last year, so it’s going to be a really good match. We are going to have to play really well. We can’t go in overconfident, which I don’t think we are. We know what we’re up against, which is good.”

Despite the letdown over the weekend, the team is still looking to the future and preparing for its last two matches of the season.

“We have a really good shot at beating both Penn and Princeton if we stay in it and stay focused,” Young said. “We need to be mentally tough and work as hard as we can physically.”

As such, the team is committed to staying motivated until the very end.

“We need to put this behind us,” Ordway said. “We have to take down the positives and move forward and hopefully win the last two matches … We want to end this weekend on a very confident note.”