Northwestern is coming of its first loss since Feb. 26 after falling to No. 2 Notre Dame on the road Wednesday, dropping its record to 13-4.

“I think we got outplayed,” said head coach Claire Pollard on the teams 4-3 loss against the Fighting Irish. “I give Notre Dame all the credit in the world. I think they made it really tough for us to win, and we didn’t make it tough enough for them.”

Freshman Georgia Rose managed to come out with a win against Notre Dame, but said it was still an uphill battle nonetheless.

“It was tough going down 1-0,” Rose said, “And I had to play a three-set breaker but luckily got out of that one. The girl played really well, but unfortunately we came out with a loss.”

The Wildcats (13-4, 5-0 Big Ten) will resume conference play this weekend as they face Minnesota for an 11 a.m. match on Saturday.

Minnesota (3-13, 0-4) is battling a nine-match losing streak and is currently in last place in the Big Ten. NU, on the other hand, is in first place.

But Rose said the team will approach this weekend’s matches the same way it took on Notre Dame.

“We take each match exactly the same,” Rose said. “We’re expecting them to be the same, and they’re all going to be tough since we’re playing away and on the road again, but we’ll be up for it.”

Following Saturday’s match, the Cats will travel to Iowa City, Iowa, to play against the Hawkeyes (12-3, 4-0) at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

The Hawkeyes have won their last three matches and are currently second in the Big Ten. Iowa’s most recent loss came against No. 2 Notre Dame a little more than two weeks ago when it fell 6-1 on the road.

“This is another weekend we have to travel and so we know we need to be prepared,” Pollard said. “Iowa is playing good tennis and we can’t afford to overlook Minnesota. We’re going to have to play a great match Sunday to come back victorious.”

Reach Diane Yamazaki at [email protected].