The Spartan volleyball team enters the weekend in a do-or-die situation - win two and survive or the alternative.

The No. 18 MSU volleyball team still has a chance at the Big Ten title but not with a loss or two this weekend. As the Spartans lurk in the middle of the messy Big Ten conference, two wins could help move them ahead of some of the five teams they sit one game behind.

"We should come out of this weekend 2-0," senior middle Jenny Rood said. "How this weekend comes out is up to us."

For the past three weeks, they have played well one night but not the other. The players don't attribute the "Jekyll and Hyde" act to anything in particular, but they have noticed differences in their play.

"One thing we've been talking about a lot is the difference between the nonconference and the Big Ten," Rood said. "In the nonconference, we didn't have time to be nervous, we didn't have time to be thinking about all the pressures. We just did it."

The Spartans "did it" to the tone of an 8-2 record, with their only losses coming to Georgia Tech and national powerhouse Nebraska, both of which have a legit chance to win the national title.

"There wasn't any room to be tentative or scared then and that shouldn't change," Rood added. "There is still not room for that on this team."

Now the Spartans have dug themselves a hole, but that doesn't seem to bother the players. For the past three weeks they've known after losing the first game of the week, they would need to win the second night.

"It's not a good position to be in, but if it's a motivational tool, we might as well use it instead of being down about it," junior outside hitter Sara Villwock. "We have to win now; we don't have a choice. That's the way we have to think about it now."

The biggest thing the Spartans want to accomplish is winning at home. For the season, they are 9-3 in road or neutral site matches and only 2-2 in home matches.

Sometimes teams play better on the road because of the pressures they feel at home, playing in front of the home crowd, family and friends.

"We need to prove we can play well at home," head coach Chuck Erbe said. "Hopefully we've found a real stable lineup where the personalities mesh well with each other."