The volleyball team continues to walk the fine line of a 500 winning percentage. Never too many games above but never any games below that even mark.

The walk continued this weekend as the team split a pair of games in their first weekend of Big East road action, giving them a 9-8 record and 3-3 mark in conference play.

The inability to go on a continued winning streak could be attributed to a number of things.

"We need to dig down deep and find what each player needs," said junior outside hitter Jamie Mueller. "We … are still trying to learn what other players need individually in terms of how they like the ball set in order to figure out what type of team we are."

In Friday night's game versus West Virginia, the team managed to take the first two games of the match but failed to close it out in three games. The Mountaineers came back to win game three but the Golden Eagles won in four games.

The match was an entire team effort with four players having double-digit kill numbers. Mueller led the team with 20 kills. The Golden Eagles hit at 22 percent and limited West Virginia to a 14 percent attack.

"None of us thought of this weekend as our first road game in the Big East, it never really entered my mind," Mueller said. "We thought of it as just another game in trying to climb the ladder to get another win."

Finishing off the weekend the team played Pittsburgh on Sunday. After three games the Panthers earned the victory due in large part to their block numbers. Pittsburgh totaled nine blocks while limiting the Golden Eagles to three. After having four players in double digit kills Friday, only senior outside hitter Theresa Coughlin and sophomore outside hitter Kimberly Todd finished the match with 10 kills or more. Pittsburgh hit at 28 percent during the match while limiting the Golden Eagles to a 15 percent attack percentage.

"They came out pumped up, we started out too slow," Mueller said. "They executed right away but we could not get going until the end of the third game, at that point it was too late."

Conference rundown

The split weekend leaves the Golden Eagles in seventh place in the Big East. Louisville and Notre Dame are both undefeated in conference. Villanova, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Syracuse all sit ahead of the Golden Eagles in the standings.

Playing at a constant competitive level will be a key factor to the Golden Eagles success down the stretch, according to Coughlin.

"We need to play on a constant level of competitiveness versus all teams," she said. "We get caught off guard sometimes and we have to know we can compete with all teams."

Wednesday match a nice break

While the team usually has the week to rest up for their games on the weekend, the Golden Eagles will be playing Wisconsin-Green Bay on Wednesday at the Al McGuire Center as part of homecoming week.

Though this game breaks from the repetition of all games played on weekends, it serves as a positive change of pace for the team.

"These are the games we really look forward to playing," Mueller said. "We want to be the best team in the state and we need a win."

"These games are pretty comfortable for us playing in the middle of the week," Coughlin said. "It will be nice to have more fans out there and faculty."

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on October 11, 2005.