UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — You don’t get to 999 wins by accident.

You don’t have that kind of success, and last 31 seasons at one school, by taking anything for granted, for making any assumptions.
Not only do you collect those wins, but that is how you grab three NCAA Division I women’s volleyball titles and are two victories away from capturing an unprecedented third straight.
Maybe luck helped for a point or a win here or there, but 999 takes a lot of work.
That was made evident two weeks ago, when Penn State head coach Russ Rose was talking about preparing for the Nittany Lions’ opening match in the NCAA tournament against a Binghamton team that had a 15-15 record in a small conference and had a much shorter starting lineup than his team.
“I don’t predict that they’re inferior because I respect the process,” he said. “I remember when we were Penn State in the Atlantic 10. Then we were perceived to be the inferior opponent of all the established big-school-conference teams.
“I respect the team because they won their conference.”
That respect and preparation has led the Nittany Lions to an astounding place in sports history. They have won 100 consecutive volleyball matches, a longer streak than any other Division I women’s program in NCAA history, and have won 49 straight road matches, also an NCAA record.
All those numbers, and Rose’s head-coaching victory total, can be extended by one on Thursday night when Penn State (36-0) faces Hawaii (31-2) in the national semifinals at 9 p.m. EST on Thursday in the St. Petersburg Times Forum in Tampa, Fla.
“If we win on Thursday, I’ll just be happy that we win on Thursday,” Rose said Monday about the coaching milestone. “A number like that, I’m just happy that it’s a number that’s higher than my weight. I’m tired of talking about all these small numbers. It’s nice to talk about some big numbers that are meaningful.”
There is meaning in all the wins — and in the 159 losses. Rose said he remembers a few of the latter better than most of the former.
Rose got there with his own style, his own personality. He has many friends around the volleyball world, including his opposing coach Thursday night, but there also are plenty of adversaries who do not appreciate his approach, his honesty. He can be blunt and unfiltered, and his sense of humor is often drenched in sarcasm.
He even joked with his seniors before the team’s three-set sweep of California in Saturday’s regional final: “I sure hope we win because I’m just getting comfortable with you guys that think I can tell you what I really think.”
Rose has pretty much had the same style since he started coaching at Penn State in 1979, and even before when he won another 50 games with the Nebraska junior varsity, and he makes sure recruits know what they will be facing before they ever step on campus.
“I’m sure I’ve hurt a lot of feelings over the course of time,” Rose said.
“Life’s tough. I’ve had a lot of people say and do things that, if I was a soft guy it probably would have bothered me a lot as well. But I think I’ve been consistent. You can’t treat them all the same, but I can be consistent and treat them the way I feel I should treat them.”
Invariably, before every season-opener, Rose laments how sore and banged-up his freshmen are from August preseason practices — two-a-day and even three-a-day practices that none of them is used to experiencing.
Even then, he is taking nothing for granted.
Still, for the 99 percent of the time he is driving his team, working them beyond the point of exhaustion and frankly pointing out their weaknesses, his players do not lose their affection and appreciation for him and that 1 percent when he can soften up a little.
“He has so many moments of being tough,” senior setter Alisha Glass said.
“He definitely has moments, and it’s those moments that kind of remind you why you came here. . . . He does care about us and he wants to see us do well.”
There is one guarantee, win or lose, this week: Rose will not be the winningest coach in Tampa.
Thursday’s opposing coach, Hawaii’s Dave Shoji, has 1,016 wins, which is second all-time in Division I behind the 1,106 of UCLA’s Andy Banachowski.
In the other semifinal, Minnesota coach Dave Hebert is fifth in wins with 868. Texas coach Jerritt Elliott is the kid in the crowd with 263 wins in 11 seasons.
By the way, they all trail the NCAA’s overall leader, Larry Bock, who has won 1,218 matches 25 miles to the south of State College at Division III Juniata.
If the Nittany Lions win, the focus will barely be about Rose’s milestone, and more on the breathtaking performance of his team.
Getting to that point has hardly been easy.
“Some people feel if we don’t win it’s a disappointment,” Rose said. “Yet they don’t know how hard it is to get to the final four. I look at it as, out of all the teams that are there, we have some experience in the final four and winning in the final four and hopefully that will be an advantage.”