Russ Rose - Penn State University

Penn State University

At Penn State, Rose's teams have never posted fewer than 22 wins in a season, and he earned his 900th career victory at Penn State on September 21, 2007, with a win over Michigan State (only the third Division I coach to reach the milestone). Rose was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in December 2007 and has been named the AVCA National Coach of the Year four times: 1990, 1997, 2007 and 2008, more than any other Division I coach.

Rose has coached 28 different All-Americans (earning 64 selections in all, with 11 3-time selections & 3 4-time selections), All-Big Ten players (earning 74 selections in all), and Academic All-Big Ten players (earning 100 selections in all). In his 32 seasons, he has coach 64 All-Americans, having at least one on his team every season except for 2001. The 2008 National Championship team which went 38-0 featured 6 All-Americans.

In 1999, Lauren Cacciamani was named the AVCA National Player of the Year, Big Ten Player of the Year, Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year and the Honda Award winner. Bonnie Bremner and Katie Schumacher joined Cacciamani as All-Big Ten selections in 1999. Bremner won back-to-back Big Ten Player of the Year honors in 1997 and 1998. Amanda Rome and Carrie Schonveld were recognized with honorable mention All-Big Ten status, while Mishka Levy was named to the conference’s All-Freshman squad. Penn State also placed six players on the Academic All-Big Ten Team in 1999, as Bremner, Cacciamani, Kalna Miller, Schonveld, Rome and Dawn Ippolito were honored.

Rose's players earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors for a record 6 straight years and 8 of the last nine (2002–07, 2009–10), Big Ten Player of the Year 6 straight years (2005–2010), and also picked up AVCA National Freshman of the Year in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, four players were named All-Americans, with Megan Hodge, Nicole Fawcett and Christa Harmotto taking first team and Alisha Glass taking second team. In 2007, Christa Harmotto finished the season with the second highest hitting percentage in the nation (.492) and freshman Arielle Wilson finishing 5th in the nation, with a .446 percentage.

In 2008, an AVCA record six All-American's were named to Rose's squad. Hodge, Fawcett, Harmotto, and Glass earned First Team honors while sophomores Blair Brown and Arielle Wilson earned Second Team honors. Senior Nicole Fawcett became Penn State's second ever AVCA National Player of the Year. Megan Hodge repeat as the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player in 2008 after leading her team to the victory over Stanford for Penn State's second consecutive NCAA championship.

In 2009 Penn State captured its seventh consecutive and 13th overall Big Ten title after completing the regular season 32-0 (20-0 in the Big Ten) after going an incredible 114-8 in sets played. Covering the two consecutive 38-0 perfect seasons (238 sets), Penn State has gone a remarkable set record of 228-10 (96%). The Nittany Lions did not lose a set in the NCAA Tournament until the National Semifinals against Hawaii but won that match 3-1 to set up an exciting showdown against the #2 Texas Longhorns. In the Championship match, Texas would grab a 2-0 set lead. During their remarkable winning streak, Penn State had never been down 0-2, but he Lions clawed their way back and won the match 3-2 and extended their win streak to 102 games with another perfect season.

In 2010 Penn State won the first seven matches, before having their record win streak snapped at 109. They went 16-4 in Big Ten play, but still managed to win their eighth consecutive Conference Championship (14th overall), matching the streak of eight consecutive Atlantic 10 Championships set during all eight years in the conference. Even though they dropped five matches, including four in conference, all losses were away from University Park, so they won all 20 home matches and extending their Rec Hall winning streak to 94 games.

Rose led the Lions to a regular season record of 26-5 and earned the fourth overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, keeping alive their streak of appearing in all 30 NCAA Tournaments. They only dropped one set, in the Regional Finals verses Duke on their way to the Final Four. They then swept Texas in the semifinals and swept California in the Championship to claim their fourth consecutive National Championship and a final record of 32-5. They have won 24 consecutive postseason games, an NCAA record. The Championship was Rose's fifth, which is set a record for most by a single coach in NCAA history.