After losing its second match of the season at Ohio State last Wednesday, the Penn State women's volleyball team returned home searching for its swagger.

It was looking for the team that defeated nationally ranked Texas and Louisiana State on the road in five games early in the year. It was desperately trying to be whole again, instead of the shell of itself it had become in recent weeks.

And despite defeating Iowa, 3-0 (30-17, 30-18, 30-20) Saturday night at Rec Hall, the Nittany Lions still haven't found what they're looking for.

"We're not anywhere near where we were when we were playing our best volleyball this season," Penn State head coach Russ Rose said after the win. "Whether we'll return to that level of play, I don't really know, but I'm not real happy with the efforts in practice and some of the attitudes and the state of the program as I see it right now."

After winning their first 21 matches of the season, the Lions lost two Big Ten matches in two weeks (to Wisconsin on Oct. 27 and Ohio State on Nov. 8), something a Penn State team had not done since 2003.

Saturday's match presented an opportunity for the No. 3-ranked Lions to bounce back. Iowa had won only two conference matches all year, and after facing Penn State (25-2, 14-2 Big Ten), that number did not increase.

Senior opposite Cassy Salyer led Penn State with 14 kills and a .650 hitting percentage. Sophomore outside hitter Nicole Fawcett also had 14 kills with a .539 percentage.

"Coming off of how we played a couple nights ago, and the impact a match like that has on young people, I thought we were OK [Saturday]," Rose said. "I don't think the statistics reveal the challenges that our team really has."

Those young people are freshmen setter Alisha Glass and outside hitter Megan Hodge, who have been asked in their first season to carry a bulk of the load for one of the nation's more respected college programs.

The youth -- five starters are sophomores or younger -- had not been an issue until recently, around the time high school volleyball seasons end, when college seasons reach their midway points.

"We are a young team in a way. The freshmen have to fight through that phase of hitting the wall and recovering from it," Fawcett said. "As a team, we need to learn how to fight through it together and not let the younger players individually fight through it."

Rose said that Glass had "a really bad match," against Ohio State. She had 38 assists, one of her lower totals of the season. Against Iowa (13-15, 2-14), Rose said Hodge didn't play "especially well." She had nine kills on 28 attempts.

Still, Penn State won, and sophomore middle hitter Christa Harmotto attributed that fact to the way the team focused following the loss to Ohio State.

"There haven't been very many practices where we've come out feeling like we gave it our all, or gave it our full effort and focus the whole practice," Harmotto said. "That was the first time in a long time where we had done that."

Penn State hopes to have more practices like that one. It just hopes a defeat doesn't have to be its motivation.

"We've got some people that aren't on the same page with what the needs of the team are and what the expectations are to play at a high level for a three and a half to four month period," Rose said. "Maybe they'll develop that, maybe they won't, but certainly there's some people that were better six weeks ago then they are right now."