Some nights you have it, some nights you don't.
It's simple as that. Take the Penn State women's volleyball team. At times, the Nittany Lions look like a national championship comtender and one of the top teams in the country. At others, they are vulnerable enough to get beat by anyone.
The No. 17 Lions handed 14th-ranked Wisconsin their first defeat by sweep at home in four years Friday night (30-27, 30-24, 30-27), then turned around the next night and lost to Northwestern (30-27, 23-30, 24-30, 26-30).
"It's a perfect example of the highs and lows of a season," Penn State women's volleyball head coach Russ Rose said. "How you can come out one night and have everyting going and the next you don't have it."
The Lions (22-7, 12-6 Big Ten) got a well-rounded performance by almost the entire roster against the defending league champion Badgers (21-8, 12-6). Unsolicited, Rose praised each member of the starting lineup for her play Friday night.
"It was our best match this season," Rose said. "We blocked well, we passed really well, we made a lot of good decisions.
"To go in and win 3-0 in front of 7,000 people is a huge win for us."
Junior middle hitter Cara Smith had a team-high 19 kills and hit a superb .621. The Lions outblocked Wisconsin 13-5 and added three aces on their way to keeping hold of second place in the Big Ten.
The Badgers are not accustomed to being so thoroughly outplayed at home.
"We sure didn't expect we'd go down in three," Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite said in a press release after witnessing his team get swept at home for the first time during his tenure and the first time for the school since since Nov. 6, 1998, also to the Lions.
"We just weren't able to get our passing on track early in the match. We were just making some mental errors that often times we don't. And you do that against a good team that's playing very well and you're going to take one on the chin."
After delivering a blow like that Friday, Penn State received a knockout punch of its own the next night in Evanston. Northwestern (17-13, 10-8) has been one of the more pleasant surprises in the Big Ten, and the Wildcats avenged a loss via sweep at Rec Hall Oct. 25.
"Northwestern outplayed us and outhit us," Rose said. "I wish we had played better, I wish we played harder, I wish I could have done more as a coach."
Similar to the statistical domination Penn State put on the Badgers, Northwestern laid the same upon the Lions the next night.
The Wildcats out-hit the Lions .317 to .189, outblocked them 12-8 and outdug them 57-48.
"We had opportunities to play better," Rose said. "We had a couple chances to do some things to stay in the match. We need to play better."
Despite the acknowledged dropoff in play of his own team, Rose was quick to credit the Wildcats for playing well.
"They did to us what we did to Wisconsin," Rose said. "Give them credit, they are [over .500] in the Big Ten. They have played well all year long."
Junior middle hitter Erika Lange paced Northwestern by hitting .529 with 25 kills and only three errors. Poland native junior Iwona Lodzik added 25 kills of her own and had 20 digs for her second 20-20 match of the season.
But despite the Wildcats' strong performance, the questions still remain about the somewhat Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of this year's Lions.
"Some of the kids had a difficult time with the physical and emotion demands of the match on Saturday night," Rose said. "At some times we are overachieving, and sometimes we need to play better."
Penn State was without freshman Amy Morris and senior Hillary Sexton, both of whom have left the team permanently. The resulted lack of depth might have played a part on the second end of a long road trip Saturday night.
"This is a difficult conference to excell in with a freshman setter a freshman libero and two sophomore ouside hitters," Rose said. "[But] we are going into the last weekend of the regular season and find oursleves in second place, so overall it's positive."
