The Nittany Lions split each of their first five weekends of the season, progressively declining in the rankings, until they were knocked out altogether by Notre Dame.

Peyton Jones, who had played spectacularly as a freshman, was struggling early in his sophomore season and began losing his first grip on the starting role.

They jumped back into the top-20 after a 4–0 shoutout against Ohio State that saw Jones seize his primary job in the crease and by mid-January the team had nearly returned to their preseason ranking.

Because that stretch was played almost entirely against ranked teams, PSU wasn't punished too harshly in the standings (ending up at 16), but their hopes at returning to the tournament were balanced on a razor's edge.

Surprisingly, the Nittany Lions easily handled the Gophers and leapt ahead of Minnesota in the standings, ending up as the 4th seed by just 1 point.