Head coach Cathy George addressed the losing streak at her press conference Tuesday, and said volleyball teams typically improve from the first half from the second.

For her team, she hopes to regain their stellar play of the first six games.

“As we enter this, (we will) look at what we did well against teams in the first half, what we didn’t do as well, and work to strengthen our team,” George said. “As I’ve been though the Big Ten for nine years, we’ve recognized that all of the teams play better in the second round, and they really do strengthen some weaknesses.”

George noted that during the losing streak, statistically the team hasn’t declined much. Kill percentage has declined a bit, but service errors, which have plagued the team all year, have actually been less numerous during the losing streak.

“It’s been a little bit of a tough time, but the funny thing we recognize is that our statistical output is not much different,” George said. “We found that our service errors are actually down a little bit in our four losses than they were in our six wins. And that seems very odd.”

As for the kill percentage, George has maintained that an aggressive attitude is necessary to continue to score. The offense has been streaky over the past four games.

“We’ve got to look at where we can strengthen our offense and really just keep an aggressive mindset as you need to have in the Big Ten,” George said. “Every night is a grueling battle, and you have to stay aggressive and keep going after it.”

George, who is a self-proclaimed optimist, said the glass is still half full. The second half presents an opportunity to refocus the goals the team set at the beginning of the year.

George said the freshmen on the team may have been distracted by midterms and the constancy of the season. With most of midterms over, George sees room for improvement.

“As long as they’re keeping their mind on where it needs to be and keeping it on the improving, and the growing and getting better, we do have a higher level of volleyball in us compared to what we’ve played already,” George said. “We gotta keep our mind on what we need to do to progress.”