After starting the season 4-0, Penn State men’s volleyball has lost four straight games.

Penn State is coming off back-to-back series losses to No. 15 McKendree and No. 3 Hawaii, where it won just two of the 14 sets played across the four games.

After taking the first set 27-25 in their 3-1 loss to Hawaii on Saturday, the Nittany Lions hit a brick wall in the second and third sets, winning just one point in 26 total side-out attempts. Unsurprisingly, head coach Mark Pavlik expressed frustration with that statistic during the post-game press conference.

“You’re not going to win, and you’re certainly not going to score a ton of points when you let Hawaii side out at 25 out of 26 attempts. That was disappointing, that we didn’t turn the opportunities we got, and I thought we kind of backed away with our passing when they smelled blood in the water and started to really move their service around.”

While plenty went wrong for Penn State, it battled in sets one and four, giving the team confidence that it can hang with the best of the best going forward.

“So [there are] good things to hang on to, good things to build on. Now, let’s make sure that we’re ready to go for Saint Francis,” Pavlik said.

If there’s one thing Pavlik and his squad are not doing, it’s pushing the panic button.

Matthew Luoma, who had a team-leading 17 kills on Saturday night, echoed that sentiment.

“This is exactly why we bring these teams out here in January. We want to test ourselves against the best. We’re going to take this, use what good we did. We did some bad, but we’ll forget about that and hold on to the good and just take that into the next games we have. Now we know that we can compete at this high level. It’s just building from there to where we can get to the point where those sets one and four become sets one through four,” said the redshirt junior.

Similarly, libero Ryan Merk believes that, although the games against Hawaii were losses, they will benefit the Nittany Lions in the long run.

“I think Hawaii is a top team in the country, probably some of the best serving we’re going to see in the NCAA,” Merk said. “Taking what we learned and saw, especially with the guys that haven’t played much, seeing guys hit 70 [mph] at you in a game scenario. That’s some experience that can go and help us later in May.”

One of those less experienced players, freshman Kyle Fagan, saw extended action in the fourth set following an injury to outside hitter Jaidyn Bethel, something Pavlik believes is essential to roster development.

“You can practice hard all you want. You can go at the guys on the other side of the net, day in and day out at practice, but you never can recreate what these guys felt out there in game one and game two. The earlier you can get the younger guys in there, and it’s like, ‘Ok, I’ve seen it. I’ve felt it. I’ve done it,’ the better off you are,” said Pavlik.

How can Penn State get back on track? Merk, who’s been in the program for five years, says he believes it starts with energy.

“We told the guys in the locker room, the way we felt out there, the way we were playing, the energy, that has to be every single practice, every single game moving forward, no matter who’s on the other side of the court. We’re playing a top team [like] Hawaii, maybe we’re playing an unranked team. We have to bring that same energy.”

Penn State’s next opportunity to get back in the win column will come against Saint Francis in Rec Hall on Friday, February 6, at 7 p.m.