Russ Rose sat in his office Wednesday afternoon going over scouting reports while his team played on a court elsewhere in Rec Hall, without supervision.

The head coach had cancelled practice, saying the Penn State women's volleyball team -- the same one riding a 37-match winning streak in the Big Ten, the same one ranked No. 2 in the nation, and one of just four unbeaten teams left -- was not entitled to play that day.

During practices the two previous afternoons, the Nittany Lions (17-0, 6-0 Big Ten) did not display the kind of attitude Rose hoped they would.

He didn't want to go through the process again, even with tonight's match at Northwestern and Sunday afternoon's at Illinois looming.

"I just didn't want to see any more," Rose said Wednesday, around the time he would normally be barking instructions. "I just felt that there's no reason to do the same thing day after day. If they're not motivated and spirited enough and focused on what we need to do, then we don't need to do it."

Rose's official cancellation of the day's activities didn't stop players from setting up their own practice. The court time in South Gym was still reserved, but they knew where to find the equipment and figured their coach would probably expect them to be there anyway.

"No practice always means practice," junior middle hitter Melissa Walbridge said.

So the team functioned on its own, for a day, in preparation for matches against the Wildcats (8-7, 2-4) and Illini (11-5, 2-4). The Lions play Northwestern at 8 tonight and Illinois at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Both opponents are unranked, the opposite of last weekend, when Penn State played and defeated No. 23 Minnesota and No. 14 Wisconsin. But regardless of the opponent, the Lions are thinking more about their own play than about the rank of the team across the net.

"We've had some good matches and we've had some matches where we sort of uncovered our weaknesses," senior opposite Cassy Salyer said. "But I guess now is as good a time [to find those out] as any. If we're going to be successful in the tournament we need to learn as we go and find out what we need to get better at each week."

The tournament Sayler mentioned is the NCAA Tournament in December. When asked what he thought about players thinking that far ahead,

Rose did not seem worried.

"I would think they talk about Nordstrom's and shopping as well," he said.

This week, the coach was more concerned about his team's practice habits.

"The reason [I cancelled practice] was if you're not going to work hard, why do it? I'm in the office. I was here this morning at 8. I'll be here 'til 8 o'clock doing my job. What they choose to do is what they choose to do," Rose said. "I'm a coach, I can't make them do it."

Well, they did it anyway.

Not on Sundays

Rose expressed his displeasure playing Sunday afternoon to accommodate Illinois' Saturday evening football game against Ohio University.

"Other people have asked to play some games on Sundays and I've always said 'No,' " Rose said. "It messes up your practice week. It messes up your travel. It messes up my Sundays when I like to take my son to McDonald's for breakfast, and I like to watch some football and do some things that I can't do. So I don't like it at all."