It’s official: Binghamton University’s women’s tennis team is in a rut.

The Bearcats lost their fourth straight dual match of the season on Saturday, this one to the University of Massachusetts, 4-3. The loss keeps Binghamton winless in the month of February and drops its overall record as a team to 1-4.

The loss to UMass did start with some promise for the Bearcats. BU seized the doubles point behind their vaunted duo of Anna Edelman and Lauren Bates, who are now a robust 16-2 as a team. Edelman and Bates were dominant in an 8-3 victory over Masha Pozar and Candynce Boney. Gayathri Balasundar and Erica Rosenblum rallied from 7-4 down to win 9-7 in their doubles match to seal the point for the Bearcats.

Edelman and Bates also went on to be victorious in their singles matches, each winning 6-2, 6-2. After that the Bearcats unraveled, losing the other four singles matches. Yulia Smirnova lost at third singles 6-2, 7-6(0) to Boney. Balasundar fell to Stephanie Giminez 6-1, 6-0 in the sixth position. Rosenblum retired mid-match down 2-6, 5-4 against Kaitlyn Carpenter while Danyelle Shapiro dropped a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 decision to Maude Lecluyse at the fourth spot.

One cause for concern for the Bearcats that came to the forefront after the weekend was the team’s performance in three set matches. Shapiro’s three set loss was the match’s deciding factor in her team’s 4-3 defeat. In the Bearcats’ loss against Army on Feb. 1, Rosenblum lost a three set match with the teams dual victory on the line. Edelman, the team’s top player, seemed to echo the sentiment that her and her teammates need to start finding ways to win such matches in order to turn their losing streak around.

“I think we need to be stronger mentally and we’ve got to play smarter,” Edelman said. “We’re working on our conditioning a lot more this semester in order for us to play better when we are in three set matches.”

The team wants people to understand it is not all gloom and doom. The Bearcats could easily be a 3-2 team right now (had they beaten Army and UMass rather than suffering narrow defeats) going into a match against the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a team they beat 5-2 last season.

The Bearcats did show some positive signs despite losing to the Minutemen. Rosenblum and Balasundar showed resolve in rallying to win their doubles match. Edelman and Bates continued their dominant play. And most important, their players say they believe that they will right the ship and put an end to their losing streak.

“We are going to turn it around,”Edelman said. “We fought so hard this weekend and showed a lot of improvement.”