The No. 7 Penn State men's volleyball team dealt with every facet of a volleyball match and every emotion last night in its first home match of the season.

With both ends of the Nittany Lions' spectrum on display in front of a half-filled Rec Hall, an inconsistent Penn State team still managed to pull out a win against the No. 11 Ohio State Buckeyes 3-1 (30-32, 31-29, 30-27, 30-26).

"I think we covered the whole range of situations," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said. "Up big, trying to close it out. Trying to close it out, them coming back. Down big early. Up big early. I think it's probably a good way to start the season, where we had to put the wheels back on a little bit. "

The Lions (3-2) began the first game sluggish and had to force themselves to come back. Both the defense and offense were inconsistent, but they found a way to make it to game point. The Buckeyes (7-1), however, came back and shut them down.

Game 2 began the way Game 1 ended with the team's defense and offense playing on their heels. Pavlik made the move to take out co-captain Aaron Smith and put in sophomore Jay Stauffer. Stauffer played for half the game, tallying two digs and one kill before Smith came back.

Fresh off the bench, Smith began with a huge block to turn the game towards the Lions.

"I was dragging a little bit the first game. I'll admit it," Smith said. "As for the block, Pav said, 'Smitty I'm putting you in to make a block' and I got it. It felt good after that. I kind of just shook everything else off."

From that point on, the Lions offense took over the match. The third game was the most dominant for the team since it was up by nine at one point. The inconsistencies were still evident, however, as it allowed Ohio State to go on a seven-point run.

"I thought we were doing the right things," Pavlik said. "The execution wasn't where we needed it to be. I thought the effort was there. I think we're somewhere around where a good team should be right now but we can't quite get our hands on it. If we can put together more stretches like we did in the first game, I think we will be fine."

As a team, the Lions hit .397. Sophomore Max Holt had a .579 clip and 13 kills. The kills for both senior Alex Gutor and sophomore Matt Anderson were the most glaring statistic of the match. Both had career highs, with Alex tallying 27 and Anderson with 20.

Even though the Lions pulled out a win, there are still a lot of missing pieces in the lineup. The team must fix its inconsistencies soon, as EIVA matches will begin next week.