Hurricane Rita is about to hit Texas' Gulf Coast and the storm has postponed The University of Memphis volleyball team's weekend.
It will force the Lady Tigers (8-6) to wait five more days to play another match.
Friday's match at the University of Houston in Texas and Sunday's match against Houston-based Rice University, in Memphis, have been cancelled because of Rita. The Category 5 hurricane will reportedly make landfall late Friday or early Saturday.
Of the 18 games during their four-game losing streak, Memphis only won five. It's the longest losing streak since 2002.
The team would like to return to prior form when they won 8 of 10 matches to start the season.
Ashley Liford, a sophomore outside hitter, said the team will probably practice every day in order to come back strong from what she described "just a bad weekend."
The bad weekend for the Lady Tigers saw losses to Louisiana Tech, Duquesne, Buffalo and West Virginia.
The two tournaments, one in Macon, Ga. and the other in Morgantown, W.V., forced the Lady Tigers to play lots of matches without much rest.
"We look at (the extended break) as a bonus,...it gives us the opportunity to plan for Arkansas St. on Tuesday and for our conference road trip," said head coach Carrie Yerty.
Those games against Arkansas St. and Southern Miss are both on the road, which will be the eighth and ninth road games in what will be a ten-game span for Memphis. Their next home game is Oct. 7.
Yerty is ready to play on the Memphis campus again.
"Any time you have a great facility and great fans, playing at home is a morale boost," she said.
Another morale boost for the Tigers would be a win, and Yerty said her team is ready to get another.
"Without a doubt (this team) is ready to win," she said. "This is a resilient team."
To win will take a team effort, according to Liford.
"There are little things we can work on," she said. "We need to work together as a team and push through adversity."
While Yerty wouldn't give away specifics, the team is making corrections as well as learning what the team's personnel can do.
"We made some changes and focused a lot on defense," she said.
Make-up dates have yet to be determined.
