In honor of HATE WEEK: Michigan, the women's volleyball team traveled to "the mitten" for back to back games against No. 11 Michigan on Friday night and just-outside-the-Top-25 Michigan State on Saturday night. The women were riding an 82 match win streak and could count the number of sets lost in the past 2 seasons on one hand. By the time the matches were over, the women had survived a scare one night and laid an epic beat down another night. Stats, results, and analysis of the 5-set win over Michigan and 3-set win over Michigan State after the jump.

I was actually in the Detroit area and tried in vain to find someone to go to the UM game with me, but alas, I was forced to go to the bar alone and watch Pitt football. It might as well have been LPGA. Anyway, UM had its first ever advanced sellout for this game. The match started hot, as UM took the first set 26-24, marking the first time the PSU team had been trailing in a set in over two years. UM then called a set long timeout...if you ever get the chance to watch any women's volleyball ever and you want to see how the game should be played, watch the second set of this UM game. Megan Hodge was destroying the ball along with Ari Wilson, and Alisha Glass was placing the ball exactly where it needed to be. PSU cruised 25-8. The teams then traded sets, with PSU taking the decisive fifth set 15-12. It was certainly a scare, but the women knew how to close out the match and extended the match streak to 83 straight. Megan Hodge and Ari Wilson (who hit an absurd .696 hitting percentage) led the way with all-world setter Alisha Glass keeping up the solid work as floor general. The team hit a collective .362, almost doubling UM's .191.

Saturday night's match was a horse of a different color. PSU won in straight sets, 25-11, 25-18, and 25-12. Blair Brown led with 13 kills and Ari Wilson continued to destroy everything she touches, hitting a .727 hitting percentage. Penn State more than QUADRUPLED MSU in hitting percentage, .519 to .118. For a team essentially ranked 26th, they played more like Akron. Penn State had their way and everyone got in the action.

At the end of the weekend, Penn State had extended its match winning streak to 84, the longest in volleyball (men's and women's) history. They are under 10 matches away from the all time longest winning streak in any sport (held by North Carolina women's soccer). Ari Wilson was named Big Ten player of the week and the women are a shoo-in to remain atop the AVCA rankings that come out later today. PSU gets to return home for the week, with a four game homestand against Indiana (10/23), Purdue (10/24), Ohio State (10/28), and Minnesota (10/30).

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

UPDATE: Penn State remains number 1 in the latest AVCA poll. An also-undefeated Texas team takes 7 of 60 first place votes. The team is fifth in the country in assists per game with 13.73 (Alisha Glass) and third in the country in blocks per set with 3.02. Hitting percentage is the benchmark by which players and teams are judged, and this team is comprised of outstanding hitters, and it shows. The team is hitting at a .421 clip, more than a full 0.1 better than second place Texas (.317). To compare, this would be like Albert Pujols hitting .380ish, while the second place hitter is only hitting .275 at the All Star break. The team gets just under 15 kills per set (which is about 60% of the points scored). Four PSU players are in the top 100 hitting percentage, with Ari Wilson #1 (an other-worldly .591) and Megan Hodge #5 (a comparatively modest .436). LINKS!