Penn State women’s volleyball’s problems with inconsistency became apparent once again during its recent West Coast trip.

Heading into that road trip, the Nittany Lions looked to have finally hit their stride after winning three straight games, including an upset win over Wisconsin. They rose in the rankings for the first time this season and had a great opportunity to extend their winning streak to five against unranked Washington and Oregon. Despite all that momentum on their side, it came to an end with an upset loss against a Washington team that was .500 heading into the match.

Penn State’s slow start in this match doomed it to this loss. It got dominated in the first two sets as it lost them by eight or more points. Also, it was very ineffective in this stretch as it had a hitting percentage of .000 and 27 total errors, compared to Washington’s .365 hitting percentage and nine errors. Despite winning the next two sets to force a deciding set, the deficit was just too much for the Nittany Lions to overcome, and they failed to complete the reverse sweep over the Huskies.

This wasn’t the first time that the blue and white were in this position. This happened to them earlier in the season when they lost to TCU. Just like against Washington, the Nittany Lions got off to a slow start by getting dominated in the first two sets before winning the next two and then failing to complete the reverse sweep. For that reason, Penn State assistant coach Megan Hodge Easy reiterated the importance of getting off to a fast start and why consistency is still a work in progress for the team.

“Hopefully, our biggest lesson learned is that you can’t start flat. You don’t get those points back, those sets back, and you just make it really tough to win when you cough it up early,” Hodge Easy said. “It’s hard to say we’re consistent when we beat Wisconsin 3-0 and then go down 0-2 in Washington. I know it’s something that we are constantly working on, but I still think we have a lot of work to do.”

After the loss, Penn State had a quick turnaround as it had to travel to Eugene, Oregon, in less than 24 hours to take on Oregon. However, it did not let that loss deter it, and the blue and white responded with a win over the Ducks. This time around, they got off to a fast start as they hit .559% to take the first set, something that was lacking against Washington.

This fast start set the tone for the Nittany Lions as they went on to win in four sets. This team needs to get off to fast starts to win matches, especially in the first set. All of their 11 wins this season have come after the blue and white won the first set, despite having lost two times after winning the first set. Penn State outside hitter Caroline Jurevicius talked about how the team was able to rally going into the Oregon match.

“Don’t let one loss beat you twice. I think that stuck with us, because we had less than one day to prepare for another really good Big Ten team,” Jurevicius said. “Move on because you don’t really have a choice. If you allow that to dwell and seep into Oregon, and we lose because of that, then that’s just a waste of so much energy and so much time. So, just forget about it, and I think that’s a very mature thing for this team to have done.”

Despite the setback against Washington, Penn State has been playing much better as Maggie Mendelson and Jurevicius have stepped up for the team alongside Kennedy Martin on the offense. Mendelson has a five-match streak of double-digit kills, and Jurevicius has a three-match streak as well. Also, Addie Lyon continues to show that she is getting more acclimated to her new role as a distributor, as she continues to rack up the assists for the team.

However, this weekend will be a test that the Nittany Lions haven’t faced this season yet. Even though Rutgers and Ohio State boast the two worst records in the Big Ten, this will be the first time that the team doesn’t play a weekend with back-to-back home or away matches. They will play Rutgers at Rec Hall on Friday before playing Ohio State on the road two days later. Despite this, Hodge Easy knows that this is a good opportunity for the team to find their routine heading into future split weekends.

“Having that day in between to travel to practice, get acclimated, makes it a little bit easier, so we’re not too concerned,” Hodge Easy said. “This will be kind of that first experiment for that, and then hopefully if things go well, we can use that again going into next weekend.”