After a win and a loss at the AVCA/NACWAA College Volleyball Showcase in Omaha, Neb., there were no clear answers about how the No. 5 Penn State women's volleyball team will perform the rest of this season.

Yet, after coming off of a 29-3 record that resulted in a second consecutive Big Ten Championship and a Sweet 16 appearance last year, the expectations for this team are as high as they have ever been.

Coming into the season Penn State was picked in the Big Ten coaches' poll to win the conference. But if this team performs like every other Nittany Lion squad has for over a quarter-century under head coach Russ Rose, it should be just fine with fulfilling those expectations.

Going into his 27th season as head coach of the Lions, Rose hasn't had a double-digit loss season since 1983, before all of his players were born. The team's three seniors, middle hitter Kim Holm, setter Sam Tortorello and libero Kaleena Walters, are the only Lions born in 1984, and each are set to lead a young Penn State squad.

A key question for Rose is how he's going to make up for the loss of graduated seniors and 1983 babies Tabitha Eshleman, Syndie Nadeau and Ashley Pederson. Nadeau and Pederson, both of whom were outside hitters, have left a hole up front, while Eshleman vacates the defensive specialist position.

"We lost 40 percent of our passing and over 40 percent of the swings and kills that we had," Rose said.

But, in this case, where there are questions, there are varieties of suitable answers. The passing is still in good hands with Tortorello, who was an AVCA first-team All-American in 2004. Tortorello currently ranks fifth on the Penn State all-time assists list with 4,603. This puts her just 397 assists from becoming the fourth player in the history of the Lions to collect 5,000 career assists.

Another player Rose can count on for consistency will be Walters. After last weekend's matches that led to Walters' first Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honor, Walters has had double-digit digs in 74 of her last 81 matches. Walters set the Penn State season record with her defense, totaling a record 619 digs, and is now only 234 digs short of becoming the all-time leader for Penn State in that statistic.