Maybe you haven't noticed, but the Penn volleyball team is good.
Really good, in fact.
The Quakers are currently 9-0 in Ivy League play, and are poised to capture the 2003 Ancient Eight title -- their third straight Ivy championship.
If Penn accomplishes this feat, it will become just the third team in Ivy League history to do so.
Needless to say, the program is reaching new heights every season.
In 2001, Penn captured its first Ivy title in 11 years. The Quakers earned their first-ever NCAA Tournament berth, and gave national powerhouse UCLA a run for its money in the first round.
Last season, Penn took the league crown again. It was the second time ever that the Quakers had won back-to-back championships. The Red and Blue's .815 winning percentage was the fourth-best mark in the program's 29-year history.
And yet in the last three years, Penn has not had one player on the team stand above the rest.
None of its players have earned Ivy League Player of the Year or Rookie of the Year selections, and even Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week honors are hard to come by.
So the rest of the Ancient Eight must be wondering one thing.
What is Penn's secret?
Over the past few seasons, I've taken an informal poll of opposing coaches and players, and they all seem to point to one thing.
The coaching staff.
Now in their sixth year, head coach Kerry Major Carr and assistant coach Orlin Jespersen have been nothing short of inspiring in the way they've turned the Penn volleyball program around.
Coming from coaching positions at the University of Alaska Anchorage and Western Washington University, respectively, Carr and Jespersen arrived in Philadelphia for the 1998 season.
In 1998, the Quakers posted an 11-16 record.
Three freshmen on that team -- setter Jodie Antypas, outside hitter Stephanie Horan and middle hitter Kelly Szczerba -- had no idea back in 1998 that they would become the foundation of a league championship team in three years.
The coaching staff's approach after that year was simple -- focus on team chemistry.
In the early years, Carr and Jespersen concentrated on developing the backbone of any successful team -- defense.
Within a couple of seasons, Penn's defense became the most feared in the league, and opponents began finding it increasingly difficult to tool its frontcourt blockers and dink against its backcourt defensive specialists.
The coaching staff then went to work on revamping the offense.
Gone are the days of Penn's predictable, high-outside offense.
In its place is a quicker, balanced and deceptively complex playbook.
This year, the Quakers added yet another dimension to their game, implementing the three-middle offense.
Penn's ability to switch between the traditional 5-1 offense and the three-middle has confused opponents all season long.
And the coaching staff's foresight to utilize the team's personnel strength at the middle hitter position further suggests Carr and Jespersen's ability to take above-average players and establish an Ivy League dynasty.
In its recent greatness, Penn has never had the strongest, fastest or biggest player.
But the coaching staff? That's another story. Just check the Penn and Ivy League record books to see what a dominant coach can do.
