Members of the Penn State women's volleyball team interlocked arms, formed an oval and faced each other on the Rec Hall floor Saturday night, moments after officially clinching their fourth consecutive Big Ten title.

As those in attendance stood and applauded the Nittany Lions for the unprecedented feat, the message among the players was this: "Let's have a good week of practice."

That is the kind of second half the No. 5 Lions (29-2, 18-2 Big Ten) have had this season. Yes, they won the conference. After sweeping Illinois and Northwestern this weekend, Penn State won the Big Ten outright for the fourth straight year, something no conference team had ever done. But they didn't do it the way they wanted.

"I don't know that anyone in this program is especially proud of how we won the Big Ten this year," senior Cassy Salyer said. "The fact that we did it is great, but we need to be better."

The Lions wanted to go 20-0 and repeat last year's perfect conference season. They wanted to be reaching their peak entering this weekend's NCAA Tournament. They crave going to the Final Four, something a Penn State team has not done since 1999.

So while a Big Ten trophy and championship T-shirts rested on a table a few feet away from them, the Lions thought about having a good week of practice. As if they needed to be motivated to do so.

"I feel fortunate we were able to win because I don't think we have been playing our best volleyball for the last month or so," Penn State coach Russ Rose said after Saturday's 3-0 (30-21, 30-27, 30-22) win against Northwestern.

The Lions defeated Illinois, 3-0 (30-22, 30-23, 30-13) Friday night to first guarantee a share of the Big Ten title.

The season began with 21 straight wins, including the first 10 of the Big Ten schedule. Then the Lions were defeated at Wisconsin and Ohio State in a span of two weeks before ending the regular season with five straight three-game sweeps to win the conference over Minnesota by one match.

The focus after Saturday's sweep of the Wildcats was already on this Friday when Penn State plays Long Island in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Rec Hall.

"Winning the Big Ten is great. We've done it four times, but that wasn't this year's goal. That wasn't the main focus," Salyer said. "Now that we've accomplished that goal, one of our baby steps along the way, we need to focus on the next step."

Three early exits from the tournament -- including a Round of 16 loss to Tennessee at Rec Hall last season -- are on the minds of the seniors as their college careers wind down.

"We can't really say much when we haven't gone to the Final Four," senior Kris Brown said. "Some people think, 'Yeah, they won the Big Ten four years in a row, but they haven't gotten past regional finals.' It's kind of hard to be really proud of it when you don't show for it at the end of the season."

Soon after Penn State broke its post-game huddle, Brown, Salyer and fellow senior Ashley Fidler were presented with the Big Ten trophy and joined by the rest of their teammates for a photo.

"They had a great career if you look at it in hindsight," Rose said of the senior class. "They're going to leave with four Big Ten championships and maybe in their senior year they'll be able to achieve something they haven't been able to achieve the last three years."