The SMU volleyball team (10-6, Conference USA 0-2) will look to rebound from last weekend’s poor start to conference play when they host East Carolina University on Friday and Marshall University on Saturday at Moody Coliseum.

The losses last weekend were made worse by the fact that SMU’s defense was top-tier, but the lack of offense from their top two hitters doomed their chance of winning.

“Our style of defense could have been ranked in top-10 in the country,” Lisa Seifert, head coach of the Mustangs said. “We played amazing defense. We just didn’t execute on offense. A big part of it had to do with the fact that Dana Powell didn’t swing all week last week because of her ankle. Kat [Kathryn] Wilkerson was dealing with a foot issue; off of the court, she’s in a boot right now.”

ECU (8-7, Conference 1-2) runs in the middle of the Conference USA pack. They have done well against teams with lower records, but have fared poorly against better teams. Between playing Marshall and Southern Miss, which are the top two teams in C-USA, respectively, ECU won only a single set.

Saturday will be tougher for SMU, as conference leader Marshall (15-2, 3-0) will be taking the court. Marshall will be led by the combo of junior outside hitter Elizabeth Herman and junior setter Rachel Lindelow, both of whom have already claimed Player of the Week Awards from C-USA.

“I believe I said, before we went on the trip, we’re not overlooking anybody,” Seifert said. “Because we haven’t won anything yet. This is a young, talented group that is focused on their end goal. We’ve got to bounce back. There’s no choice.”

The Friday game against ECU starts at 7 p.m. Saturday’s game against Marshall is also at 7 p.m.