Just when the Penn State women's volleyball team seemed to be turning its season around, it got a glimpse of how far it still has to go to have a chance at defending its national championship from last year.

The No. 11 Nittany Lions struggled during the weekend, squeezing out a victory against Iowa Friday night and losing to No. 7 Minnesota 3-2 Saturday.

"I have mixed feelings on the weekend," Penn State coach Russ Rose said. "On the whole, we had some periods where we played well and played hard. We also had periods where we just stopped in the middle of games."

In both matches, the Lions fell behind, trailing 2-1 to the Hawkeyes and 2-0 to the Gophers. But Penn State never gave up and found a way to fight back.

Against Iowa, it rallied behind freshman Cara Smith, who led the team with 17 kills, and junior Amanda Rome, who had 15 kills along with 15 digs.

The closely contested match saw two games go past the minimum of 15 points for a victory. Two other games were decided by no more than three points.

In the final frame, Penn State was on the ropes, trailing 14-13 late, and giving up four of the last five points. But the Lions blocked an Iowa attack and, with two kills by sophomore Shannon Bortner, Penn State completed the comeback.

"We weren't that sharp against Iowa," Rose said. "I think Iowa outplayed us. I was pleased with the results, but not by the performance."

There was little time for rest, as the Lions were off to Minneapolis, Minn., for a match the next day versus the Gophers. After falling behind 2-0, redshirt sophomore Mishka Levy sparked a Penn State rally to tie the match at 2-2. She recorded 33 kills and 16 digs on the night. Rome also chipped in, adding 23 digs of her own.

In Game 5, Minnesota jumped out to a comfortable 9-5 lead, and despite another come-from-behind attempt by Penn State, the Gophers proved they were the better team that day.

"It was just really disappointing because we were up in every game," Levy said. "We just couldn't finish them off. We were there, we just needed to finish."

Minnesota's win gave the Gophers a season sweep against Penn State, the first by any team against the Lions since 1995, when Ohio State pulled it off.

Perhaps, what was most disappointing about the loss was, for the second time this season, Penn State had a shot to beat Minnesota and both times couldn't take advantage. However, Rose doesn't want to talk about what his team could have done. He focuses on what his team did.

"There's no moral victories for what I do," he said. "If you don't get the job done, then you can't really talk about what could've been.