The Panthers volleyball team has just two regular season matches remaining and it is still difficult to gauge how good they are.

At the beginning of the conference season, they were dominant. They started the season 9-0 and looked like a team that was on a mission to repeat as champions.

Lately, they have been losing games to teams that have clinched a tournament spot.

They went 2-3 on their recently completed road trip with losses to Southeast Missouri, Jacksonville State and Tennessee State.

The 9-0 start was finished in convincing fashion by Jacksonville State on Oct. 22 as the Gamecocks swept Eastern in Jacksonville, Ala.

Eastern then followed that up with a win at Austin Peay, one of the worst teams in the conference. Back-to-back losses, one at SEMO, who swept them, and one at TSU, who took them out in four, put the season back into perspective.

The problem is that all of these losses were on the road. Are the Panthers just not effective on the road or is it an indication that the rest of the tournament teams may be better than them?

That question will get answered this Friday night when Jacksonville State comes into Lantz.

The team has struggled lately and much of that could be because of their travel schedule. Although every team in the conference has to deal with travel, the Panthers seem to be two completely different teams on the road and at home.

At home, they are 9-1 and haven’t lost since their season-opening match. On the road, they are 5-5 and struggle against the better teams in the conference.

With the Ohio Valley Conference tournament being held at Lantz Arena on Nov. 18-20, it is imperative that the Panthers show that they can still beat these tough teams at home and that their recent losses are just because of the weary travel schedule.

They will be able to sleep in their own beds when the tournament is here and that could be an advantage they could use to send them to their first NCAA tournament since 2001.

They managed to beat Eastern Kentucky and Southeast Missouri at home in early October. But this team has to return to that form. This would be the right time of the season.

Marco Santana is a sophomore journalism major. If you would like to discuss his hatred of Road Trip and Tom Green e-mail him at cumas36@eiu.edu.