Ask anyone to describe his or her dream vacation, and you can be sure that certain adjectives will be used.

Warm weather, clear skies and beautiful beaches: these are the types of things that the average tourist looks for when making travel plans.

So what better place to spend one's dream vacation then Hawaii? Well, the men's volleyball team's dream vacation turned into a nightmare last week, as the No. 11 team lost not once, not twice, but three times in the Outrigger Invitational in Honolulu, leaving its record at 1-4 (1-0 EIVA).

The losses do need to be put in perspective, as the three teams to which the Nittany Lions lost -- Hawaii, UCLA and Ohio State -- are ranked No. 7, No. 5 and No. 9, respectively.

But needless to say, the Lions are not where they need to be early on in the season.

"We have a tough time starting matches and whenever you set that tone, it's hard to pull out of it," senior co-captain Matt Proper said. "We just have a lot of things to figure out."

After losing to Hawaii in three games, the team knew it needed to make some significant strides quickly if it even wanted to stand a chance against UCLA (3-3) in the second match.

The team did make strides, though it may not seem that way on the scorecard, but still fell to the Bruins in three games (34-36, 26-30, 21-30).

"I thought we played better than [against Hawaii]. I have no complaints on how hard we played," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said. "The difference was some decision-making in key plays in key moments. It's easy to look at the negatives, and I know it was a three-game loss, but the team showed some bright spots and some people did some good things."

One of those people Pavlik was talking about would have to be freshman Matt Anderson. The young outside hitter had a career high in kills against the Bruins with 15. Proper added 15 kills, too, and senior middle hitter Nate Meerstein had 12 kills at a .417 clip.

After starting the tournament 0-2, the Lions had only one more match to redeem themselves. And what better game to do so then against Penn State's most heated, hated rival -- Ohio State.

This match had all the makings of a classic.

For one, the match featured career-high performances. Perhaps sensing the magnitude of this match, captains Proper and Meerstein both contributed career highs in kills with 27 and 21, respectively.

Second, the match was more of a marathon then a sprint, lasting for two hours and 42 minutes.

Lastly, the match went to five games. The Lions would be the ones to fall short in this one. After being down two games to one, and forcing a fifth game, they would end up losing by just two points (30-22, 24-30, 27-30, 33-31, 15-17).

Albeit the final score, the team was still pleased with its play.

"We had our first appearance of a quality team effort throughout a match [against Ohio State]," Pavlik said. "We were creating opportunities and starting to convert at a higher level."

Every great team has to battle back from setbacks, and losing four straight matches, at best, can be called a setback. It's what the team does after the setback that defines it.

The team is confident that it can learn from this tournament and regroup.

"The team is learning to work through events that go against us at bad times, and I know this group will work hard to get past that point," Pavlik said. "We're coming back to the mainland better than when we left."