The mile-high altitude at last weekend’s Denver Invitational didn’t do much to lift the SMU volleyball team’s momentum going into the meat of the Conference USA schedule.

The Mustangs went 1-2 on Friday and Saturday, with their only win coming in four sets against winless Georgia State. Nevada-Las Vegas, an NCAA Tournament participant in 2007, downed the Mustangs in three sets, and the host Denver Pioneers were far from hospitable in a four-set victory.

SMU (7-7) returns to Moody Coliseum on Friday to face Central Florida. Southern Mississippi comes to town on Monday.

SMU head coach Lisa Seifert has talked about keeping the Mustangs’ opponents out of system, meaning that their style of defense forces opponents to rely on only a couple attackers, instead of using a more balanced attack.

A glance at last weekend’s statistics showed that the Mustangs’ competitors have kept SMU’s offense out of system by forcing the action to outside hitter Kathryn Wilkerson.

Last weekend, the sophomore had 124 total attacks, which led the team by 29, but she converted only 33 of them. Wilkerson is the team’s co-captain and leads the Mustangs in kills, but she is hitting only .192 this season.

Seifert said one of her offensive goals for the season is to have all her attackers hitting above .200. So far, only Wilkerson and freshman Jessica Oliver (.196) are below that mark.

The Mustangs are still outhitting their opponents 603-583 this season, and have 26 more blocks (98-72). Some of this success is due to middle blockers Kendra Kahanek and Natalie Peters. The duo has combined for 51 blocks and a .253 hitting percentage.

Seifert said that Kahanek will continue to be crucial to the team’s offense. However, she stressed the importance of staying in system, so both Kahanek and Peters get the ball.

In the Mustangs’ win over Georgia State, Peters hit .435, then she hit .409 in the loss to UNLV. Kahanek led the team with nine blocks last weekend, raising her total to 31 this season.

Freshman Kelli Becerra and senior Stephanie Kons have been responsible for setting up the bulk of the Mustangs’ offense. They have combined for 477 assists, which is about 86 percent of the team’s assists this season. Becerra had 32 assists, a tournament high for the Mustangs, in the match against Denver.