Spikers 'hit rock bottom' on road trip

The once attainable goals of the men's volleyball team are now questionable.

Penn State entered this season with high hopes. But a losing record has turned those dreams into nightmares. This past weekend, the horror continued with losses to Loyola-Chicago (15-7, 15-7, 15-8) and Lewis (6-15, 15-5, 17-15, 15-12) in the Golden Dome Classic at Rutgers-Newark.

"The team just kinda hit rock bottom," setter Dan Pollock said. "We just didn't come out with any emotion after that. That seems to be our common theme."

No. 9 Loyola pounded the Lions in 90 minutes. In the crushing loss, the Lions were unable to score more than 10 points in each of the three games. Loyola swing hitter Dan Schultz released 17 kills and racked up 10 digs to lead his team in the victory. Schultz was joined by three other Ramblers with double-digit kills.

Penn State was able to do very little to counteract the Ramblers' attack. Despite swing hitter Brad Miller's match-high 21 kills and Pollock's 59 assists, the Lions were just simply unable to score.

"We weren't converting in point-scoring opportunities," swing hitter David Gealey said. "We would make an error or hit out of bounds. We weren't playing real smart."

With the burden of two losses on their backs, the Lions had to face another tough foe in Lewis. The No. 10-ranked Flyers entered Saturday night's match off a rough defeat by Rutgers-Newark. With both teams suffering from previous losses, everybody had something to prove.

Penn State came out strong in the first game. The Lions quickly put away the Flyers in a brief 15-6 game. But the Flyers came back even stronger, winning the second 15-5.

With the match even at one, the night became an offensive battle between Penn State and Lewis. The Flyers eventually proved victorious, winning the last two games 17-15 and 15-12.

"In games three and four we had leads at the end of the game," Pollock said. "That is when we needed to be at our best. We made stupid errors and we didn't play sharp. We played hard to that point and then basically handed them the game."

This disappointing weekend road trip was the Lions' first of the regular season. And their next trip won't be any easier. After Thursday's home match against George Mason, the team travels to Columbus to face No. 7 Ohio State.

If this weekend was a horror show for Penn State, next weekend could be even worse. The Lions hope they will be able to wake up from their 4-9 nightmare season.