I was able to find a volleyball statistic that indicates top-ranked Penn State — which comes to the UW Field House Friday night to face No. 21 UW — might not be the world-beater it has been all season.

Did you know the Nittany Lions are last in the Big Ten in digs?

OK, that actually might be the best indication the Nittany Lions are the world-beaters they have been all season. You don't have to dig in the back row when you are crushing opponents at the net, and that's exactly what Penn State has done in running off 20 straight victories and winning 60 straight sets.

It should be entertaining to watch Friday night. The Badgers have always played the Nittany Lions tough, especially here. While this UW team doesn't match up to the clubs of the past few years, the Badgers will know what's on the line.

"One thing that some teams do, they get intimidated by that team," UW coach Pete Waite said earlier this week. "They just get scared and then they make errors and they just hand it over to them. So our goal is to stay aggressive the whole time. …

"The biggest thing, I think, is they intimidate because of their size and their power. You've got to understand that if they crush the ball, you know that's only worth one point. You don't crush it harder and get two points. So we've got to go after them like we did last year and just have fun with it."

And force the Nittany Lions' back row to play, too, if only to improve those dig statistics.