Penn State women's volleyball coach Russ Rose said it once, and he'll say it again: the Big Ten women' volleyball season is a marathon, not a sprint.

With a 10-week, 20-match conference season, by the end the women will have played each of the Big Ten teams twice, once at home and once away, in what is the longest season of any of the fall varsity sports.

And this is precisely why the team is not letting its pair of conference-opening road victories against Michigan State and Michigan last weekend tell more than part of the story.

"The first weekend was terrific in that we won two matches on the road and we were the only school in the Big Ten that was able to do that this weekend," Rose said. "But the real story would be [that] the Big Ten season in women's volleyball is 20 matches."

Twenty matches - just two of which have elapsed. So for the women, the story also includes simply keeping level heads and working to get better. After all, the marathon victor is seldom determined in the opening stretch.

"It's about getting yourself into a position where you're getting better," Rose said. "They need to work hard every day in practice if the team's going to get better, that's really what it boils down to."

And the team has specific targets for its practicing. Just like the runner who may realize her weaknesses when she finally matches up against fellow athletes, the opening of the marathon held some lessons for the Lions.

"[We] had some windows of time when we actually let the other team back in when we had seized pretty good control," Rose said. "So the fact that we're letting people back into the matches when we have control is disappointing."

And the pre-conference season hitting woes continued.

"We need our outside hitters to limit some of their errors," Rose said. "I'm just not real comfortable with the offense that we're getting from the outside."

Another concern, now that the marathon is underway, is the health of the Lions. With several players somewhat banged up and illnesses going around, delivering peak performances each weekend for 10 weeks will be a formidable task.

"You can't get better unless everybody is healthy and you're building on a strong foundation. Right now we've got people that are hurt, everybody's been sick and it makes it tough," Rose said. "When we get healthy, we have the potential to get better and that's what I wait for."

Despite the intense conference schedule, Rose is confident that his team will be able to get healthier during the Big Ten season. In contrast to the eight hours of practice a day scheduled in the preseason, the women have three during the season. They practice just four days a week, when games are at home, and just three days on weeks when the team is on the road.

As in any marathon, the women know that there may be stretches of the course that will present a more difficult challenge than others. But they simply look forward to fighting their way through these segments.

"There's always certain teams that we are more excited to play," sophomore setter Sam Tortorello said. "We always love to play Minnesota, Ohio State, and Wisconsin probably the most."

Beyond keeping their eyes on certain sections of the race, the Lions look at the season as a whole and know that any given part of the marathon can be just as important as any other part. And they realize that they have quite the distance to travel, both in terms of matches to be played and progress as players.

"We're getting a pretty good team effort, whether or not we're a team that's knocking on the door to do great things, I wouldn't step forward and throw us out there at this point in time," Rose said. "I think we're still a work in progress. There's still a long way to go."

Fortunately, in a marathon of a season, there is time.