Stand in the middle of the court in the main gym of Rec Hall and look up. Strewn across the rafters of the gym are numerous championship banners for various Penn State sports.
After this weekend, there may need to be more room made for another banner as the No. 1 Penn State women's volleyball team looks to clinch the program's 13th Big Ten championship.
The championship would also be the team's seventh-consecutive conference title.
The players and coaches, though, don't have their mind set on the title. Instead, they are going into this weekend's matches with the same mindset they've had all year long -- taking one match at a time.
"It's not necessarily a focus on winning the Big Ten as much as it is winning the next match," junior Alyssa D'Errico said. "We know if we keep focusing on the match that we have coming up that eventually our goal will be achieved."
One of the goals coming into the season was to win the Big Ten, but it won't be in the back of the players' minds this weekend. The Nittany Lions need just one win against either Purdue or Indiana to clinch a share of the title, and also move into second place all-time for the longest winning streak in Division I history with 93. But there is still a lot of volleyball left after this weekend.
With four games left on the schedule, the Lions aren't taking anything for granted and still see room for improvement. As such, one of the goals this weekend is to get better heading into the NCAA Tournament, which begins Dec. 4.
"We still have growing to do as a team, and these are the opportunities to that we have to get better the last couple of matches before we starts NCAA's," setter Alisha Glass said.
Glass, a senior, also said that winning the Big Ten title would be a nice way to cap off her final season at Penn State. But she and fellow seniors Megan Hodge and Kelsey Ream aren't content with settling for just a conference championship.
Coach Russ Rose said he isn't looking at this weekend as a chance to win the Big Ten, but as a valuable experience for his team heading into the postseason. The two matches this weekend will be the Lions' final road matches of the regular season.
With that comes one final chance for the team to get acclimated to playing in hostile environments, as that will certainly be the type of atmosphere it will encounter if it advances through the tournament.
Last season, the Lions had the benefit of hosting a regional championship, but that will not be the case this season. The regional sites this year are Minneapolis; Omaha, Neb.; Gainesville, Fla.; and Stanford, Calif.
With more important matters at stake, the Lions will not be worrying about winning a conference title this weekend.
"I'm not looking at winning the Big Ten as the goal for the weekend," Rose said. "I'm looking at us getting better and hopefully we'll be able to do that."
