During “The Streak” (109 consecutive victories by the Penn State Women’s Volleyball team from September 21, 2007 to September 10, 2010), Penn State won an NCAA record 55 consecutive road matches, three consecutive NCAA titles, lost a total of 19 sets, and from the final set of the 2007 National Championship match against Stanford to the third set of the 2008 NCAA National Semifinal match against Nebraska, won an NCAA record 111 straight sets.  

It is the longest consecutive victory streak by an NCAA Division I women’s team in history and (arguably) second overall to the Miami men’s tennis team’s 137 match streak. (As we discussed here, that’s true, but not the full story.  The Miami streak is the longest for an “aggregate score” team sport — like tennis, golf, and wrestling — where points earned in multiple individual competitions are aggregated to determine the team score.  The Streak is the longest for a “single score” sport — like football, or basketball, or volleyball.  We think these records are really apples and oranges). 

But it was going to end sometime, and as everyone in the college volleyball world knows by now, the Streak was broken on September 11, 2010 by Stanford in the Finals of the Nike Big Four Volleyball Classic in Gainesville Florida. 

Coach Rose: I Don’t Look Back

Penn State Women’s Volleyball Coach Russ Rose didn’t want to talk about The Streak when it was alive and he doesn’t want to talk about it now that it is over (we still love his quote: “I don’t look back.”)

We don’t blame him: a winning streak that spans more than one season (this one spanned parts of four) is a strange hybrid, involving a changing cast of characters each with different strengths and weaknesses and each with different team dynamics.  So although each group of players that contributes to the streak can take ownership for their part in it, no single group can lay claim to the entire streak. That’s one reason Coach Rose doesn’t like to talk about it. 

More fundamentally, we think, his focus is on the present and the future (as it should be) and how to make his current team better, not on what happened in the past. That’s for fans. 

Who’s Next?

But fans, being fans, think about things like streaks and records and the past.  So for many fans, the question is will The Streak be broken by an NCAA women’s volleyball team (there is plenty of support for the notion that the UConn women’s basketball team will end up with more than 109 consecutive victories) and if so, when.

Never is a very long time, so we wouldn’t make a bet on The Streak lasting forever.  We certainly can say it will take almost three years (assuming 38 matches per season per team), with the Streak-Breaker being undefeated in at least two of those seasons.  Back-to-back.  Given how rarely NCAA women’s volleyball teams have gone undefeated (only five times since since 1981 — if you include NCAA Tournament matches), it’s clear that’s a very tall order. 

So, the Streak probably will be broken someday, but it will be a challenge.  And the fans of the program that meets that challenge will have something to be proud of.  And to talk about.  The team’s coach probably will be focused on other things.  As she or he should be.

To underscore the difficulty of the challenge, the table below shows the Final Four teams from 1998, with total wins, losses, sets won, and sets lost (in all cases, including the NCAA tournament).  It’s sortable — click on the arrows at the head of each column to reset the order of the teams in that column. 

Won Lost Records (Matches and Sets): Final Four Teams from 1998 to 2009

Year	Team	Conference	NCAA Finish	Wins (Matches)	Losses (Matches)	Wins (Sets)	Losses (Sets)
2009	Penn State	Big 10	First	38	0	114	8
2008	Penn State	Big Ten	First	38	0	114	2
2007	Penn State	Big Ten	First	34	2	104	18
2006	Nebraska	Big 12	First	33	1	101	14
2005	Washington	Pac 10	First	32	1	98	10
2004	Stanford	Pac 10	First	30	6	98	35
2003	USC	Pac 10	First	35	0	105	8
2002	USC	Pac 10	First	31	1	95	12
2001	Stanford	Pac 10	First	33	2	101	21
2000	Nebraska	Big 12	First	34	0	102	13
1999	Penn State	Big Ten	First	36	1	110	15
1998	Long Beach	Big West	First	36	0	108	8
2001	Long Beach	Big West	Second	33	1	NA	NA
1998	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	32	2	99	16
2004	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	23	6	76	32
2001	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	31	2	94	14
2005	Nebraska	Big 12	Second	33	2	101	15
2006	Washington	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	5	92	26
2008	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	31	3	97	21
1999	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	31	3	95	18
2007	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	5	91	35
2002	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	32	5	102	27
2000	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	3	87	20
2006	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	30	4	92	19
2007	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	32	3	101	24
2008	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	31	4	95	23
1998	Florida	SEC	Semi-finals	35	3	107	24
2002	Florida	SEC	Semi-finals	34	3	105	17
2003	Florida	SEC	Second	36	2	109	8
2000	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	31	2	95	16
2002	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	34	2	102	12
2003	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	36	2	109	16
2003	Minnesota	Big Ten	Semi-finals	26	11	85	49
2004	Minnesota	Big Ten	Second	33	5	105	34
2004	Washington	Pac 10	Semi-finals	28	3	89	23
1999	Long Beach	Big West	Semi-finals	31	4	95	23
2007	California	Pac 10	Semi-finals	26	8	87	36
2006	UCLA	Pac 10	Semi-finals	33	4	104	24
1999	Pacific	Big West	Semi-finals	32	3	NA	NA
2000	Wisconsin	Big Ten	Second	33	4	NA	NA
2001	Arizona	Pac 10	Semi-finals	25	5	79	25
2005	Santa Clara	WCC	Semi-finals	27	5	88	30
2005	Tennessee	SEC	Semi-finals	19	12	70	49
2008	Texas	Big 12	Semi-finals	29	4	94	24
2009	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	32	3	100	17
2009	Texas	Big 12	Second	29	2	91	13
2009	Minnesota	Big 10	Semi-finals	28	9	88	41
1998	Penn State	Big Ten	Second	34	1	104	6