They have been to the Northeast, out West, and all over Big Ten country.

It has won five game matches on consecutive nights on the road; it has lost 3-0 at home for the first time in two seasons.

It has had senior middle hitter Cara Smith join the 1,000 kill club, and four first year players who have been getting their first taste of collegiate competition.

In the two months since their season opener, the members of the No. 17 Penn State women's volleyball team (18-4, 7-3) have been through a lot. But with the longest schedule of any fall varsity sport, the women are merely halfway through the conference season.

"The important thing is realizing that it's a very long season," Penn State women's volleyball coach Russ Rose said. "We start playing in August and we end in December. That's a long season."

With a 20 game conference schedule, the women play each Big Ten foe twice, once at home and once away. Friday night's loss at Wisconsin marked the end of the first rotation, meaning that the Lions now have to face the second cycle, the more trying half of the season.

"The second half is even tougher," senior opposite Erin Iceman said. "Every team has played you and knows what you're going to do. But if you learn along the way, you learn to pick things up and step on the gas halfway through."

The women have had plenty to learn from. After three weeks of one-loss one-win splits, it has not been an easy stretch for the team. The Wisconsin loss knocked the Lions out of the top spot in the conference, putting them in second place behind a triumvirate of 8-2 teams -- Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, the three schools Penn State has fallen to.

"I'm terribly disappointed with our effort at home against Minnesota and how we found a way to lose against Wisconsin," Rose said. "But it's a long season and to have spent four and a half weeks at first in the conference with the team we have was a great run."

The major factor in the team's run atop the conference was the impressive level of play that the women opened the season with. The women found a way to win back-to-back five game matches on the road in Michigan and returned home the following weekend to deliver decisive 3-0 victories over Purdue and Indiana.

But since then, the team has had difficulty putting together a complete match. Hitting problems plagued the team against Minnesota, with Iceman and Smith ineffective against the Gophers' block. Setter Sam Tortorello has been in somewhat of a slump lately in directing the offense. And at Wisconsin, the passing was off, with some of the back row specialists not bringing to the court what Rose hoped they would.

"With the way we've lost the last three weekends, we're not playing great volleyball," Rose said. "There's no question that some of the players are playing like they're a little distracted."

A mid-season burnout is not uncommon in the lengthy season, but Rose said he does not accept this excuse for the team's losses.

"It's kind of getting to the midpoint of the season and people are tired and they're hitting the wall and maybe that's what it is," Rose said. "But if that's what it is, that's a terrible reason to lose, because the season is the same length for everybody."

"The people who are champions in any sport or in any endeavor in life find a way to handle adversity. They look it in the eye, maybe go get a snack, and come back and take care of what they have to do."

And as the women enter the second half of the season, that is exactly what Rose will push the girls to do. This push is evident in the extra time spent at the post-practice meetings around the net; it is seen in the faces of the players as they emerge from the increasingly long post-match rehashings.

"We just want to keep on going; we need to get better now," junior outside hitter Ashley Pederson said. "The most important thing is to be fired up and ready to go."

And if the women enter each match with that attitude, they will be closer to their ultimate goal of a conference championship, which is certainly still within reach. The team has its limitations, such as the fact that it is not an overpowering physical team or that it does not have five hard hitters. And some things are out of the players' hands, such as injuries. But to be successful, the team has to find ways to win by focusing on the things that they do control.

"We can't get stronger, we can't get bigger, we can't get tougher," Rose said. "These are blemishes and the only way we can cover them up is by playing hard and playing together."

"If we can get better and play harder, maybe we're in it."

And at mid-season, the Lions have ten more chances to see if that is true.