It was only 10 minutes into the first game of the match last night and Mark Pavlik had already used both of his timeouts.

The No. 6 Penn State men's volleyball team was down six points to No. 2 UC-Irvine, and Pavlik called a timeout, hoping his team would find its footing in the semifinals of the National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship.

Despite his most dire attempts, Pavlik was unable to help the third-seeded Nittany Lions find their footing, and they ultimately fell to the second-seeded Anteaters 3-1 (25-30, 22-30, 30-26, 23-30).

"The energy was there, but we might have been a little too amped up and it took us too long to get into any serving rhythm," Pavlik said. "We ended up shooting ourselves in the foot."

With fourth-seeded IPFW upsetting top-seeded Pepperdine in the first match of the semifinals, Penn State had the stage set for an upset of its own. It was unable to do so because of too many errors and a low hitting percentage. In Games 1 and 4, the Lions hit .99 and .31, respectively.

"I think we actually hit three balls out of bounds before we got a block," Pavlik said. "We expected [their play] and we hoped that we could've had a little bit better showing error wise."

Game 3, the only game Penn State won all night, was the Lions' best. As a team, it hit .630 with 18 kills and only one error. In Game 4, the team even looked as if it might come back, but a 6-2 run by the Anteaters put away the Lions for good.

For Penn State, sophomores Max Holt and Matt Anderson were the two top players of the night. Holt had a .556 hitting percentage with 12 kills. Anderson led the team in kills with 16 and had five digs.

Junior setter Luke Murray had a strong match for Penn State. He had 50 assists, averaging over 10 a game, and he made three solo blocks as well as assisting on four.

"I was feeling pretty good and I was jumping pretty well," Murray said. "People tend to underestimate me because I'm so short, but the key to winning is to keep your hands on it."

The three seniors and captains did their best to go out on a high note. Libero Ryan Walthall got 12 digs against UC-Irvine and was able to notch one kill, only the fifth kill of his career.

The other two, Alex Gutor and Aaron Smith, had a little bit of trouble. Gutor hit .188 but was second in kills against the Anteaters, notching 13. Smith hit with a negative percentage and was only able to get six kills.

"You'd hope that they'd bring a little better," Pavlik said. "But [UC-Irvine] did a much better job on our outside hitters than we did on theirs."

The Lions, who upset the Anteaters last year in the semifinals, were unable to do the same this year. They finish this season a little bit earlier than expected.

Still, for a team that began the season after losing four seniors, a return to the finals was still a success.

"We really wanted to turn this game into a slugfest, and I think there was some pretty good volleyball played by both sides," Pavlik said. "We are obviously disappointed. Ryan Walthall said it best. The trophy that we are bringing home doesn't define this team."