SMU’s Stefanie Kons (4) and Natalie Peters (10) attempt to block a Marshall attack. The Mustangs lost the match 3-1 Friday night, and are 0-2 in C-USA after losing 3-2 against East Carolina on Sunday. (Stuart Palley)

The SMU volleyball team had two hard tasks to open up the Conference USA season. The first was at home against conference favorite Marshall and the second was in East Carolina.

The Mustangs fell to the Marshall Thundering Herd on Friday night, but did not go down quietly. SMU was able to win the third game, but didn’t have enough to complete the comeback.

The first game took a little longer as the Mustangs mounted a comeback late and forced the Herd to score 32 points to get the win.

The second game proved easier for Marshall as the Mustangs were able to score only 21 points and gave up big runs to the Herd. SMU couldn’t get within three points and the end and fell 30-21.

The third game was the only game that the Mustangs didn’t get the first point, and was ironically the only game that they won. After trading early points, the Mustangs began to pull away and eventually won the game 30-23.

SMU actually held a lead through most of the fourth game, taking an early 5-1 lead and had as much as a 19-14 lead. But Marshall pulled it to 24-24, and after that neither team could get much of an advantage. Marshall finally took the fourth game, and the match, 30-28.

The Mustangs faced a tough, long match in East Carolina as well.

SMU took the first and third games, but the Mustangs didn’t come out strong in game four and sent the match to a fifth game.

In the fifth game the Mustangs were in the game until ECU took an 11-10 lead. SMU scored only two more points, while the Pirates scored four to win the game 15-12 as well as the match.

After dropping the first two games in conference play, the Mustangs stay on the road for their next two. This weekend the Mustangs will travel to UTEP and Tulane before returning home.