In Penn State men’s volleyball’s first match as the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, the Nittany Lions came up just short, and their time in the top spot didn’t last for long.

Penn State fell to Ohio State in five sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-22, 25-21, 15-13) and suffered its first loss this season to an opponent outside the top three, placing the Nittany Lions at No. 3 in the nation.

As reflected in the box score, the entire match was back and forth between the teams. When it was all said and done, Penn State hit .342 and led in almost every statistical category — except for digs. Ohio State’s defense stifled the Penn State attack when it needed to most, racking up 32 total digs with 11 coming from junior libero Thomas Poole.

To add fuel to the fire, a problem that’s plagued the Nittany Lions before this season reared its ugly head in key moments against the Buckeyes — service errors.

Penn State totaled 29 service errors to Ohio State’s 15 — seven of them coming from Brett Wildman. Wildman finished with nine kills but hit just .174, which proved to be an uncharacteristic outing for the outside hitter. He’ll try to get back on track in the team’s upcoming game against Harvard.

Wildman had a team-high 12 kills against Harvard last season in Penn State’s sweep. The Nittany Lions haven’t lost to the Crimson since the final two contests of 2018, the latter being in the EIVA semifinals. Harvard went on to defeat Princeton in the title game to capture its first EIVA championship.

Harvard is 7-11 overall and has been swept by the two ranked opponents that it’s faced so far this season — No. 6 Ball State and No. 7 Pepperdine. In terms of other common opponents, the Crimson lost to Daemen, Purdue Fort Wayne, and Princeton (twice), but also swept Merrimack twice.

They’re coming off of a sweep of American International College, where sophomore Azim Raheem secured a season-high in kills and led the team with nine. He helped the Crimson’s effort to crush the Yellow Jackets and hold them to a .136 hitting percentage.

Harvard is best at home, holding on to a 4-1 mark in its last five matches (5-3 at home overall).

The Crimson shouldn’t be taken lightly, but they’re certainly a step down from Penn State’s recent competition.

That being said, 10 days is the most time in between matches that the team has had so far this season. It’s worth keeping an eye on how the squad responds to the extra time off. It helps to have head coach Mark Pavlik at the helm, who is someone who has led a team to an NCAA title before and knows what it takes to do so.

The 2008 title team hit a similar bump in the road midseason, losing to George Mason on March 7 as the only blemish on its record. The team then ripped off 12 straight wins to end the season 30-1. This year’s team only has to do half of that to clinch one of the best regular season records in program history, which would be tied for third.

With six regular-season matches remaining until it’s EIVA Tournament time, the Nittany Lions need to be playing their best volleyball of the season. These two matchups against Harvard can serve as a springboard into the rest of the regular season and the playoffs.

The first serve is set for 7 p.m. on Friday, March 31, and at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 1, from the Malkin Athletic Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.