As the refined ballet plays out before him, each play moving in and out, back and forth with the ebb and flow of the action, Russ Rose, the man behind the spectacles, silently tracks the action.

During a match, he'll sit with a leg folded, book in his lap, pen in hand documenting the play of his Penn State women's volleyball team. During practice, he'll intermittently bark out orders and instructions.

This is his act, his show, and he's been the marionette behind the scenes for 28 successful seasons. He's good at what he does.

Still, he's never pleased. He's never satisfied.

Things can always be better.

And that is why, for the fourth consecutive year, the Nittany Lions will win the Big Ten championship.

While it is the talent on the floor shouldering the daily load, suffering more bruises and more scrapes and growing more worn out each day coming to Rec Hall, the quiet man directing it all deserves a large chunk of credit for the program's success. Especially with this young team.

He was there to plant the seeds, luring each one of those coveted freshmen to State College. Now here, he's poked and prodded and pushed them in all sorts of directions, each day going just a little further to enhance their ability.

And despite losing some of the best volleyball talent Penn State has known, it looks like he's kept this team in step.

Though the newcomers have but a few months on campus, they've already been integrated into the program. And coupled with the play of an outstanding sophomore class, this group has as much, if not more, potential than any team in the nation.

A hefty crop of All-Big Ten performers, three Big Ten Freshman of the Year recipients, the 2005 National Freshman of the Year, plus the four newcomers who were all named the best volleyball player from their respective states, the Lions already have more awards than the Emmys.

Though nationally the Lions might be better suited one- or two-years further along, they are still in the upper echelon. But all of the major power players seem to have equal footing at this point, so a title talk might be more appropriate in the coming years.

This isn't the 2005 team, which basically rolled through the conference on auto-pilot en route to an undefeated Big Ten record. Penn State might lose a match or two along the way, as the conference seems to have developed a larger pool of contenders.

"Big Ten play is obviously going to be really hard for us," sophomore outside hitter Nicole Fawcett said. "There's a lot of teams that are really good this year, more so than they were last year, so we know we have to play well."

But make no mistake: This is Penn State's conference.

With Rose pulling the strings and throttling his team forward, expect no less than another conference crown.