Penn State emerged from its back-to-back conference matches with a split weekend. Although the No. 10 Nittany Lions (18-7, 10-4 Big Ten) handily defeated Iowa (18-6, 8-6) in straight sets (25-11, 25-16, 25-17) late Saturday afternoon, the win enabled the Lions to snap a four-game losing streak — a streak extended by a Friday night, five-set loss to No. 1 Nebraska (25-22, 17-25, 23-25, 25-23, 11-15).
On Tuesday, coach Russ Rose commented on the performances, saying they can’t be compared by result. He said there were “flashes” in which the team played well against the Cornhuskers (22-1, 13-1), but the Lions can’t take away many lessons from the performance from the Hawkeyes because Rose said the Hawkeyes didn’t play well against the Lions.