After losing two of three matches last weekend, the volleyball team was supposed to go into this weekend's Penn State Tournament experienced, improved and confident.
Those qualities did not seem to be present, as the Quakers (1-5) lost all three of their matches.
Marshall (6-4), Penn State (9-2), and Seton Hall (6-6) all handled the Quakers with relative ease. In fact, Penn managed to win only one game the entire tournament -- the second game against the Pirates.
For coach Kerry Carr, the main issue is confidence. Carr believes in her team but thinks that her team does not yet believe in itself.
"We work on it in practice, tell ourselves we are a good team," Carr said. "You have to practice confidence."
Confidence alone would not have helped Penn beat some of its challenging opponents this weekend. Penn State is currently ranked fourth in the country and is probably the best team on the East Coast.
"By playing a team like Penn State, we were hoping to take a lot from them," Carr said. "They are just above and beyond us."
Marshall also provided a tremendous challenge. Marshall sports three international players on their roster, including Kelly-Anne Billingy. Billingy was named the volleyball player of the year in Trinidad and Tobago before attending Marshall.
Yet Carr did not expect to beat a team the quality of Penn State. Rather, she wants it to be a challenge and a learning experience for her team.
While much of the team struggled and could not establish any sort of rhythm, Carr was impressed with the play of senior outside hitter Cara Thomason. Despite nursing a groin injury from last weekend, Cara was "back to old self," Carr said. Thomason compiled 27 kills on the weekend.
Carr has put the onus on herself to resolve this issue. Believing that confidence is something that can be built during practice, she wants to prepare her team to perform in the "big game" and the important moments.
In order to do so she is going to make her team work hard.
"Push them to the limits every day in practice."
Leading the way for the Penn defense was junior defensive specialist Meredith Damore, who had team highs in digs against Marshall and Penn State. Thomason and junior libero Elizabeth Hurst also added 16 digs each the loss to the Pirates.
Despite the losses, Carr has great optimism for her team, she is simply hoping that her team feels the same way.
She has told her team, "this is one of the greatest teams I've ever coached and you just don't know it yet."
PENN 20 22 16 -- 0Marshall 30 30 30 -- 3
PENN 17 16 17 -- 0(4)PSU 30 30 30 -- 3
PENN 21 32 22 20 -- 1Seton Hall 30 30 30 30 -- 3
