Sometimes a coach has to eat their words.

And in the case of No. 17 Penn State's women's volleyball coach, Russ Rose, that is a good thing.

One night after he said that his team doesn't have the offensive talent to finish a match with a hitting percentage over .300, the Nittany Lions came out and played arguably their most complete match of the season, hitting .342.

Hitting percentage is compiled by taking the total number of kills (49), minus the hitting errors (9), divided by the total kill attempts (117).

After hitting a mediocre .213 against an OK Northwestern team, Rose said those fateful words came back to prove him wrong the next night against No. 25 Illinois. Not only was Rose pleased with the team this weekend, but the women's effort reminded him of the Penn State team's of the early '90s that dominated college volleyball.

"We had four hitting errors in two games -- that's the type of volleyball we played in the old days, where the players were very conscious of errors and kept the ball in play," Rose said.

Rose also spoke highly of senior co-captain, Erin Iceman. Ice, as she is referred to by her coaches and teammates, finished the first two games with 11 kills and no errors. she finished the weekend with a team-high 25 kills and a .352 hitting percentage.

"We hit high because they only had a couple of blocks and it was because Ice was hitting so well," Rose said.

While Iceman was pleased with the team's performance, she knows that the only statistic that matters is wins and losses.

"It really doesn't matter what our hitting percentage is, as long as we win," Iceman said. "If it happens that we have to hit .342 to win then so be it."

One reason for the efficient hitting against the Illini was the defense, which set up the Lions' offense and allowed them to play their style of volleyball. Literally, in the last line of defense stands the libero, and in Penn State's case she is Kaleena Walters. Walters, who is praised by her coach almost every time that Penn State plays, win or lose, stepped up in a big way this weekend.

Penn State, who has been averaging about 16 digs per game this season, finished the first game against Illinois with 22 digs, and followed that with a 19-dig performance in game two.

"Every dig is important, no matter where it is going on the court. It gives Sam (Tortorello) the chance to make some good plays and it also opens the hitters up to get some kills," Walters said after the game.

Walters finished the weekend with 25 digs, and is now ranked third in the Big Ten averaging about four digs per game.

With the weekend sweep the Lions have reached the 20-win mark for the 27th consecutive year. And if the superstitious Rose wants his team to finish the season strong, he may want to tell everyone that he knows that this year's squad doesn't have the talent to win -- not the Big Ten championship and definitely not the National Championship.