Blue White Illustrated

"I didn't want to go to five, Hancock " said. "I don't think anyone did. They're a scrappy team. They played well. We weren't doing things we normally do. … I went back there and said, 'This is it, this is a good situation and we should just play like we've been playing all season. " ' With its sixth NCAA title, Penn State tied Stanford for the most in Division I history. Rose has been the Nittany Lions' coach for all of those championships, and he'll presumably be on the sideline if the Nittany Lions find themselves taking aim at a seventh at the final four next December in Oklahoma City, Hancock's hometown. After 35 seasons as the Nittany Lions' head coach, he still clearly enjoys his job. "If I have a couple of kids who I like, who want to be really good, that keeps me in it, said Rose, who was named AVCA " Division I Coach of the Year for the fifth time in his career. "When I have kids who care about themselves and are not good teammates, that's a battle. … But everybody has got challenges. "I don't know how many years I'm going to coach, he added. "It's not always " up to the coach, either. It could be up to the school. Maybe it gets tired of my shtick." Someone could get tired of this? Seems hard to fathom. Even at Penn State, where the stability that once was at the core of the school's athletic culture has vanished, Rose represents a sense of permanence. You suspect that he could continue doing this job for another decade or more if he so desired, and he underscored the value of longevity following his team's victory over Wisconsin by pausing to remember the longest-tenured Penn Stater of them all. "I'm just really thrilled for the many people that care about Penn State that we would win a championship on Coach Paterno's birthday, he said. " Joe Paterno once famously called Rose the best coach on the school's payroll. He has certainly seized his share of moments over the years, and he's only getting better with age, Penn State now having won five of the past seven national titles. If it's difficult to imagine someone else doing a I better job, it's because no one has. A W A R D S W AT C H Five Nittany Lions received AllAmerica honors in December from the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Senior Deja McClendon was a second-team choice, becoming the only player in the 2013 class to be honored as a four-time AVCA All-American. Senior Ariel Scott and junior Micha Hancock were both selected to the firstteam squad, while senior Katie Slay received third-team recognition. Junior Nia Grant rounded out the group as an honorable mention recipient. … Scott also recently became the first Penn State player to receive the women's volleyball Senior CLASS Award. The prestigious honor is presented annually to the top women's volleyball student-athlete who exemplifies excellence on and off the court. … For the fifth time in his 35 seasons at Penn State, Russ Rose was named the AVCA Division I Coach of the Year. Rose also won the award in 1990, 1997, 2007 and 2008. … For the second time in her career, senior defensive specialist Maggie Harding was named recipient of the Elite 89 award, which is presented annually to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average ARIEL SCOTT Penn State Athletic Communications participating in the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships. Harding, who previously won the award in 2012, is majoring in food science and has maintained an unblemished 4.0 GPA at Penn State.

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