In practice Tuesday, Penn State women's volleyball coach Russ Rose was visibly frustrated over the lack of effort he was seeing out of his players.

Rose, never one to hide his emotions, was very candid describing specific problems he was seeing in the team.

"I'm concerned. We're not practicing very well," he said. "There's some negatives associated with losing that are almost unnecessary. If you have one of the top teams in the country, you can envision an undefeated season and play to it.

"This team handled losing to Minnesota like it would have been nice to go undefeated. There's no way they could go undefeated. They weren't that good."

With the possibility of an undefeated season a distant memory after last Saturday's loss to No. 3 Minnesota, the No. 6 Penn State women's volleyball team (12-1, 3-1 Big Ten) will now turn its attention to the more focused goal of defending the Big Ten Championship.

The Lions restart their quest this weekend, when they travel to Indiana to play upstart Purdue (10-4, 3-1) and lowly Indiana (6-9, 0-4).

"I like Purdue. I like Purdue because they've been playing very hard since the arrival of the new coach last year," Rose said. "They're playing like want to prove something and I like that. That's a nice energy for a program to have and I wish we had it."

Dave Shondell isn't exactly new to volleyball, but still a little green in the eyes of the Big Ten.

A 1981 graduate of Ball State, Shondell is in his second year at the helm of Boilermaker Volleyball. He won 14 games as a rookie coach last year and has his team on pace so far this season to win at least 20 games.

Purdue has been shocking everyone this year, outlasting Michigan State and one of the Big Ten's best players in Spartan senior Kim Schram in a five-game match last weekend. The win was a rebound from a shaky performance the day before -- a loss to Michigan, 3-1.

"I think they're good teams. Purdue's been playing pretty well," sophomore middle hitter Kim Holm said. "Indiana's been struggling a little bit, but they always play hard against us when they're at home."

Holm will be facing former high school teammate Sarah Vitali on the Boilermaker bench tonight. Both hail from St. Charles, Ill. and are products of the St. Charles East High School volleyball system.

The Boilermakers have much to gain in a win over the Lions, a win that would definitely put this young program on the map in the Big Ten. But, a win over the Lions is something they haven't managed to do since 1987, and the Lions are equally hoping to regain some footing after falling to Minnesota.

Even more challenging for the Boilermakers is the prospect of also having to play Penn State's away game travel partner, No. 9 Ohio State, in the same weekend. The Buckeyes broke into the top-ten of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll for the first time this season after their upset win over Minnesota last week.

The Hoosiers floundered last season finishing 10th in the conference with a 12-19 record and have struggled again this Big Ten season. The Lions have never lost to the Hoosiers in 28 meetings since the series started in 1982.

This weekend's competition is not quite as hyped as having No. 1 play in your house, but this Big Ten season is still in its early stages.