Early in the match, the Golden Eagles were without their captain, as senior setter Gemma Greer left the match with an ankle injury. Taking her place, junior Sarah Vernon dished out 57 assists and 18 digs, leading the team to a 3-2 win over the Cougars.

Though Greer went down with an injury early in weekend’s first game, sophomore Theresa Coughlin said the team knew what it needed to do to come out of the match with a win.

“We knew what we needed to do to get a victory,” Coughlin said. “Our team would miss Gemma because on the floor she’s our captain and leader. We also felt confident with Sarah coming into the game because we’ve practiced with her.”

Games one and two went to Marquette with scores of 30-27 and 30-22, respectively. However, Houston came back by winning games three and four and forced a decisive game five. In game five, the Golden Eagles held on for the 15-13 win.

Saturday meant another game at another location when the Golden Eagles traveled to Fort Worth to meet the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian. TCU entered the match with a 17-9 overall record and 3-5 in conference play. In previous play the night before, the Horned Frogs were downed by visiting DePaul with a final score of 3-1.

This match also went the distance and similar results were met as the Golden Eagles managed to come away with the victory, 3-2.

Game one went to TCU, as they managed a 30-28 victory. The Golden Eagles came out on top in games two and three, where they were victorious with final scores of 30-24 and 30-22. While TCU came away with game four, the Golden Eagles continued their winning ways on the road when they won game five with a final tally 15-11.

In the match, the Golden Eagles contained TCU in the block department, where they held a 16-10 edge. Another department where the Golden Eagles excelled was in their serving, where they had a 9-3 edge in service aces, including a career-high four from sophomore Caitlin O’Brien.

Though the team came out victorious in both five-set matches this weekend, Coughlin said the games could have been finished sooner.

“It felt good to get both of the wins this weekend, but we felt we could have finished these games up in a smaller number of games,” she said.

With the two wins this weekend, the Golden Eagles improved their overall record to 8-15 while bringing their conference record to 5-5. The team also jumped over Houston, TCU, and South Florida in the conference standings into seventh place.

According to Coughlin, the team did not spend a lot of time thinking about the effects that each match would have on conference standings.

“We are playing for a higher seed in the conference tournament, but this weekend we were not worried about any of that,” she said. “We just wanted to go out and get the wins.”

This weekend, the Golden Eagles will be at home, going to battle with South Florida and Alabama-Birmingham.