There were three teams present in last night's match between the No. 6 Penn State men's volleyball team and No. 8 Ohio State.

Three -- because the Nittany Lions (17-6, 10-0 EIVA) reminded head coach Mark Pavlik of, "Jekyll and Hyde."

The Buckeyes and Lions traded games before Penn State eventually fell in five games, 3-2 (30-20, 27-30, 30-19, 20-30, 13-15).

Pavlik's "Jekyll and Hyde" comparison was evident from the start, as Penn State took Game 1 fairly convincingly (30-20) and proceeded to drop Game 2 (27-30).

"We were up and down tonight," Pavlik said. "It almost seemed like we played hard, got a lead and stayed at that level. Then the next game would start and we just sort of assumed we'd still be at that level."

The trend continued over the next two games as Penn State took Game 3 (30-19) and dropped Game 4 (20-30).

"In Game 4, it just seemed like when it rained it poured," Pavlik said.

It was in that fourth game that Penn State's struggles were most apparent, as the team hit .000 collectively and committed 21 total errors.

Another telling statistic on the night was outside hitter Matt Anderson's stat line.

After leading the team offensively for much of the past month, Anderson hit -.029 on 34 attacks.

"He's going to be better than this over the course of his career," Pavlik said. "He's got to get to the point where he can say, 'Give me the ball,' then pound it in there."

Easily overlooked considering the loss and Anderson's poor night were strong performances by outside hitter Alex Gutor (21 kills on .472 hitting) and middle hitter Max Lipsitz (14 kills on .478 hitting and a team high four aces).

Still, the strong performances could not balance out the team's struggles, and the Lions return home with their sixth loss of the season.

"It's like a pitcher pitching without his best stuff. He has to paint the corners, mix up speeds," Pavlik said. "He doesn't just leave it out there to get schalacked. "

Combined with its results over the past few weeks, it is apparent Penn State needs time to regroup, refocus, and return to the same page before the postseason arrives.

"We're just in a patch where we need to get into the gym," Pavlik said. "Before then we're just going to have to grind it out."