The MSU volleyball team went 0-2 this weekend, losing to Notre Dame and South Carolina in the Gamecock Invitational in Columbia, S.C.

"That's just what happens," head coach Chuck Erbe said. "In sports, you have to have short-term memory loss and move on."

Shaking off the losses in South Carolina, the Spartans (5-3) have a lot of work to do if they expect to compete in next weekend's Big Ten openers against No. 1 Minnesota and Iowa, Erbe said.

The Spartans started the weekend with a four-game match on Friday, resulting in the loss to the Fighting Irish.

Senior outside hitter Michelle Kopka had 12 kills with a .455 attack percentage, 11 digs and two block assists, while junior middle Megan Wallin posted 16 kills.

Notre Dame junior middle Lauren Brewster responded with 17 kills for a .500 attack percentage and had nine digs, four block assists and four service aces.

By the end of the match, both teams had 60 kills, 54 assists, and MSU had more hitting attempts. But what hurt the Spartans was leading in attack, service and receiving errors - areas the team has to fix, Erbe said.

Saturday, MSU went five games with South Carolina, where the Gamecocks got a head start against the Spartans, winning the first two games of the match before Erbe switched the Spartans' lineup.

One of the changes made included the freshmen debuts of defensive specialists Miken Trogdon and Tracy Bellwood that pulled MSU to win both the third and fourth games of the match. Bellwood had 14 digs and three service aces, and Trogdon had nine digs.

"They provided a great deal of energy and emotion to the floor," Erbe said.

The most notable part of the MSU-South Carolina matchup (3-2) came during the fourth game, which MSU won 30-25, when five freshmen took the floor at one time and pulled the victory, Erbe said.

Freshman setter Maggie Griffin had 54 assists and three service aces, and freshman outside hitter Katie Johnson had 18 kills, five digs, and two block assists.

MSU did not play Sunday's scheduled contest against No. 2 Southern Cal after the Trojans canceled the trip to the entire tournament due to safety concerns surrounding possible severe weather.

Meanwhile, the team is struggling to piece together exactly what went wrong in time to improve for next week.

Despite switching lineups a few times throughout the weekend, the team still couldn't find a winning combination, she said.

"We couldn't seem to get into a rhythm," Griffin said.

Erbe cited serving and passing errors as a major problem against Notre Dame, but Wallin said the issue is not necessarily in the technical work.

"We need to learn how to come out strong in the beginning of the game and finish it," Wallin said.

MSU will travel to Minnesota to play at 8 p.m. in Minneapolis on Friday and will travel to Iowa City at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Looking ahead to those games, one bad weekend isn't going to shake up this team, Wallin said.

"We're still going to have a good season," Wallin said.

"This doesn't change anything."