The No. 4 Penn State women's volleyball team showed on Saturday that it does matter how you play, but it matters more whom you play.

Against conference bottom-feeder Indiana (8-8, 1-3 Big Ten), the Lions (13-2, 4-0 Big Ten) kept pace with No. 8 Wisconsin for tops in the standings by sweeping the Hoosiers, 30-24, 30-10, 30-18 at Rec Hall.

Coming into the match, the Hoosiers were on top of the Big Ten in service aces and second in blocking, yet Indiana only had one ace to Penn State's eight and were outblocked 9-8.

"So much of statistics are based on who you play," Penn State women's volleyball coach Russ Rose said. "We certainly made them look like a terrific blocking team. We just went up and hit the ball straight ahead all the time."

During the first game, Indiana's five blocks shut down the Lions attack at the net. At the same time, Penn State had failed to convert a single block. Rose was disappointed when his team made the Hoosiers look just as proficient as they did, racking up sweeps against Larry Bird's alma-mater Indiana State and North Florida.

In the second game, the Lions showed Indiana it wasn't going to be that easy. Penn State hit .531 in the middle game while holding their opponent to a -.028 hitting percentage. For the match, Penn State hit .393 while Indiana could only muster a .131 clip.

"When we're controlling the ball, we can take some pretty big swings," Rose said. "I thought that was kind of evident this evening."

Sophomore Kate Price helped keep the momentum going for Penn State. The first three points of the second game came as a result of a Price kills. Price picked up the production with 14 kills and three service aces, having what Rose said was Price's best offensive match since Western Michigan on Sept. 1.

The Lions took that 3-0 start and eventually carried it to 7-3 when freshman Nicole Fawcett launched a rocket, unleashed a cannon, or tore into a kill that could be described by any fastball cliché.

That was one of Fawcett's match-high 19 kills, which once again proved her terminating abilities.

"Fawcett is a pretty special offensive talent," Rose said.

By match point, Penn State had pushed its lead over Indiana to 29-9 with a block by junior Cassy Salyer and senior Kim Holm. With 500 extra No. 14's in the crowd on Salyer's replica jersey night, Salyer played with all their powers combined, hitting at a .579 percentage with 12 kills and three block assists.

In the third game, the Lions took control, and Rose even experimented with different lineups. Freshman Laura Holloway played beside Price. Salyer played both right and left side. Another freshman, Joanie Guman, entered to a lighter rendition of her brother and former Penn State football player Andrew Guman's "Guuu" chant.

"Other people getting to play tonight was more situational tonight because it seemed the match was getting away from Indiana tonight," Rose said. "When something like that happens, you have a chance to play some other people."

By now it should be an innate possibility that bench players will be see some playing time against Indiana. Penn State has beaten them 31 straight times and counting. The streak includes 26 sweeps in which the match got away from the Hoosiers.

Swimmers kick it up a notch

In between the first and second games, Rose's attention was directed towards the stands by Sports Information Director Jen Armson. Once again, it was the swimmers.

"I thought it was hilarious when Jen tells me to turn around and says, 'Look at your boys,' and I figured my children were doing something," Rose said.

Instead, Rose was greeted by a number of men's swimmers in Speedos. No pants, no shirts, just their birthday suits and some spandex. Some women's swimmers even joined the fray.

"They should bring more people out to the matches. I thought the boys brought some spice to the match," Rose said. "Hey, sex sells."