The last thing a team wants heading into a volleyball match is a moral victory. These days, Penn State isn't even allowing its opponents that luxury.

The top-ranked Nittany Lions, the defending NCAA champions, come to the UW Field House Friday night looking to extend a number of impressive streaks in a Big Ten Conference match against the 21st-ranked Wisconsin Badgers.

For their part, the Badgers are a team with their own storied tradition that has created some difficulties for Penn State.

"At home, I think we have some magical things happen sometimes," UW coach Pete Waite said.

Just two seasons ago, the Badgers swept the Nittany Lions to end their Big Ten winning streak at 33 matches. Last year, UW pushed Penn State to five sets at a memorable Field House match, only to lose 15-13 on a disputed point.

But seeing that the Nittany Lions (20-0, 8-0 Big Ten) have not lost a set this season, the Badgers (14-6, 4-4) might need their own Merlin on the court.

"They're just beating up on people," Waite said of the Nittany Lions. "Nobody's touched them.''

Since beating Stanford in the fifth set to capture last season's NCAA title, Penn State has made the 1927 New York Yankees look like a bunch of little leaguers. Consider:

• Penn State hasn't lost a set since the fourth set of last year's national championship match. That's 61 straight victorious sets.

• The Nittany Lions have allowed opponents to reach the 20-point mark just 11 times in 60 sets this season. Only UCLA and Illinois State have managed as many as 22 points. In Big Ten play, only Purdue, Michigan and Iowa have reached the 20-point mark, with Iowa reaching it twice. Three of those four times, that mark was reached in the third and final set.

• Penn State has won 46 straight matches, six shy of the national record set by USC between 2002 and '04.
That qualifies as dominating by any standard.

"Even people on the West Coast are saying they don't match up very well with this team," Waite said. "So you have to catch them on a bad day or do something spectacular in order to beat them."

The Badgers, though, are a team in transition, still trying to find their footing after losing four key seniors from last year's team. They lost twice last week, at Purdue and Illinois, but have won all five of their home matches this season, including two Big Ten victories.

"We're seeing some good things out of a lot of people," Waite said. "It's just we have to put it all together. That's the exciting part. You never know when that's going to happen. We're hoping it's this weekend."

But to have it happen Friday night, the Badgers are going to have to fend off a team that dominates the national and conference statistics. Most impressive is Penn State's national-best .398 hitting percentage and 3.23 blocks per set.

"This team is bigger and more athletic than any they have ever had," Waite said.

The Nittany Lions return all of their starters from last season, a unit that features a front line of 6-foot-4 Nicole Fawcett and 6-3 Megan Hodge on the outside, and 6-2 Christa Harmotto and 6-5 Blair Brown in the middle.