It was a weekend of ups and downs for the UW volleyball team.

Everything that seemed to go right for the No. 8 ranked Badgers when they beat Ohio State Friday night went wrong for Wisconsin the next night during their three-game loss to Penn State (15-2, 6-0).

As confident as the UW Fieldhouse crowd was after a 30-25, 30-18, 30-20 victory over the No. 18-ranked Buckeyes, it was dismayed following a 30-21, 30-25, 30-22 defeat at the hands of the No. 4 Nittany Lions, ending the Badgers' 16-match home winning streak.

Put it all together, and Wisconsin (13-2, 5-1) could get away with calling it an extremely mediocre two-match set.

UW head coach Pete Waite believed that it was simply a matter of comparative talent winning on each night.

"When you play a better team, they take you out of the game you like to play," Waite said of the Nittany Lions. "That's what we've done to a lot of teams, and they did it to us tonight."

The statistics from the Wisconsin hitters tell the story from this weekend.

Against the Buckeyes (10-5, 3-3), UW picked on an Ohio State defense that ranks ninth in the Big Ten in opposing hitting percentage — hitting .374 as a team.

UW produced five players with attacking percentages better than .300, anchored by middle blocker Sheila Shaw, with a .600 percentage behind nine kills without an error. Outside hitter Maria Carlini led all players with 12 kills.

"Our passing was really on, and it just helps when a good ball is passed to [setter] Jackie [Simpson,]" Carlini said. "It gives her so many options, so I had a lot of one-on-one blocks, giving me a lot of area to work with."

However, the Lions' defense, second best in the conference, limited the Badgers to a paltry .078 team percentage. To add insult to injury, both UW captains, Shaw and Aubrey Meierotto, had more errors than kills, turning in negative hitting percentages.

"I don't think there's a spot in (the Penn State) lineup that they are not physical, and I would even say that with their defense in the back row," Waite said. "They're just very solid, with no weaknesses.

"I'd also say they were serving tough," Waite continued. "That really … took us out of our offense, and you can see that in our lower offensive numbers tonight."

The blocking game, another of Wisconsin's major strengths, also played a role in the drastic decline in UW's offense.

While the Badgers dominated the Buckeyes on the block by setting a three-game season-high with 15 team blocks to Ohio State's four on Friday, they were subsequently out-blocked 12.5 to 12 by the Lions on Saturday.

"There were times where if we weren't passing well, the setters had to go to the outside, and then they put a big two-person or three-person block up there," Waite said. "Our outsides need to be a little bit better at hitting better shots."

"I think that we need to work on our blocking behind and in the middle," added middle blocker Taylor Reineke, who led the Badgers against Penn State with nine blocks. "They have really quick middle [hitters, and] I think it was just the fast-paced tempo of the game that was really hurting our block."

Another good example of Penn State turning the tables on UW came in the passing game. Simpson ran the offense with 36 assists en route to a 45-42 assist advantage over OSU, whereas the Lions took the assists column 47-36, holding Simpson to only 29 assists. All-Big Ten setter Sam Tortorello, who dished out 40 assists, powered Penn State's offense.

"Penn State's offense was all over the place, we never knew where [Tortorello] was going to set," said UW opposite hitter Audra Jeffers, who led the Badgers with 11 kills against the Lions.

Waite said the Badgers will be able to move on from their first conference loss in 2005, and will be a better team with the experience of playing the Nittany Lions.

"There's a reason that they're ranked in the top four in the country," he said. "They showed us some things tonight that we need to learn and improve from."