"We were struggling, and I thought Ashley could generate some offense," he said. "We do not have a lot of people who can play at the outside hitter position."

So out came fellow true freshman Syndie Nadeau, who had also started and played the whole Northwestern game Friday, her first conference action. Whether Rose revamped his lineup to throw off the opposition or to shake up the psyche of his own team is unclear, but the move seemed to accomplish both.

Shannon Bortner, who had been playing outside, returned to the setter position, where she started the year. That meant Rose had to decide between Pederson and Nadeau, both highly recruited and extremely talented, but with markedly different strengths.

Nadeau is a year older and more experienced than Pederson, and thus brings a higher volleyball IQ to the court. Her ball handling is also superior.

Pederson, well, she can mash.

"She took big swings against the biggest blocker in the Big Ten," said Rose. "You've got to be happy with that."

Rose was referring to Sherisa Livingston, who tops off well above seven feet when jumping with arms outstretched. Supplement that with 6-foot-3 Amy Hultgren, and not many shots are going to pass the net, let alone find the floor. Yet Pederson found it eight times, mostly by wailing away and hoping for the best.

The majority of her shots bounced off the block and went out of bounds or drooped down just out of the reach of any potential Badger diggers.

Pederson's final numbers were anemic. She had six errors to go with those eight kills on 27 attacks, for a .074 hitting percentage. She also had one service ace.

But in those epic Big Ten power clashes, stats mean diddly. Volleyball, at least in the new rally scoring format, is a game of runs, played on sweeping tides of emotion and momentum. Each of Pederson's swings gave Penn State confidence, because she went up hard and took a chance. Her teammates fed off that.

"Ashley came in and took big swings at a time when we needed somebody to step up and do that," Katie Schumacher said.

Relying on freshmen is nothing new in volleyball, but Rose didn't expect to have to do it this year.

"You need to feel comfortable giving somebody an opportunity to play," he said.

"You just hope they will take advantage of it."

And he says that his freshman class this year is unique.

"The very positive things is that they have kept their composure," he said of Pederson and Nadeau.

"Most freshman spend their time pissing and moaning about why they aren't playing instead of working hard to discover why other players are playing. These two have worked hard."