SMU has won a school-record 25 matches this season, a process senior outside hitter Kathryn Wilkerson said started in the offseason (photo by SMU athletics).

The SMU volleyball team has made history … and is eager to make more.

By knocking off Conference USA foes Houston and Rice over the weekend, the Mustangs improved to 25-5, breaking by two the school record for victories in a season. Head coach Lisa Seifert and her players are proud of the mark, and deservedly so, but they universally agree that the team’s new standard for victories is not enough.

The Mustangs close out the regular season Saturday afternoon at conference-leading Tulsa, and believe that a victory over the Golden Hurricane would ensure SMU of its first NCAA Tournament berth in school history.

Tulsa has a record of 29-2 this season, including a perfect 19-0 mark in C-USA matches. When the teams met Oct. 6 at Moody Coliseum, Tulsa’s Tyler Henderson tied the all-time conference record with 45 kills to help the Golden Hurricane pull out a 3-2 victory.

“We think Conference USA will get two teams in, but you never know,” Seifert said. “If we win, I think that guarantees it. We might get in without winning, but we’d rather not leave it up to anyone else.”

If two C-USA teams do get NCAA Tournament invitations, it stands to reason that SMU would join Tulsa in the sport’s ultimate playoff; the Mustangs’ 17-2 record in conference matches gives the Ponies a four-match cushion over third-place Houston with one match to go.

The Mustangs lost a trio of talented players to graduation from their 2009 roster in libero Carly Bergquist, middle blocker Kendra Kehanek and outside hitter Adrienne Zielasko. But according to outside hitter Kathryn Wilkerson, the work for this season’s postseason push began in the spring.

“Those three were good — really good — but we have most of our players back. This is pretty much the same team,” Wilkerson said. “We just all worked so hard in the spring and worked out every day in the summer. We’ve had great chemistry since the start of the season, and I honestly believe we’re in better shape than every team we played.”

Seifert agrees that the Mustangs’ offseason work has paid off, at least in terms of the team’s endurance in long matches.

“Put us in a five-set match, and most of the time, we’re going to crush you,” Seifert said. “We’re (9-1) in five-set matches. I’m a firm believer in strength and conditioning, and (the players) have really taken it to heart this year, too.”

“Being here together all summer allowed us to grow closer as a team,” junior outside hitter Dana Powell said. “Everyone wants the same thing. We owe a lot to our strength coach, Louis (Dobosenski). He had us in the weight room, running sprints, and doing everything with a lot of intensity. Every win we have had … he’s a part of it.”

Seifert said that her team benefits not just from the offseason work, but also from a new level of intensity during practices.

Middle blocker Caitlin Adair said the Ponies got a big confidence boost by winning the Baylor tournament to start the 2010 season (photo by SMU athletics).

“The level of commitment in practice has increased this year,” Seifert said. “We practice with a championship attitude. It started in the spring — this team plays a lot of pick-up (games), they think volleyball, they talk volleyball. We watch film as a team, but they come in and get more to watch on their own. They seem to want it at a different level.”

All coaches want their teams to succeed, but for Seifert, the growth of the SMU volleyball program really is something that started at its infancy. The former Texas Tech assistant coach was hired in 1995 to start a team the following year. Her first office was an extra closet with a desk jammed in it. When she brought recruits to campus, she had track and basketball athletes host them to share the SMU student-athlete experience.

Powell, a first-team All-Conference USA selection, said that while the players want to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in SMU history, there is an element of desire to get there specifically for Seifert.

“We were here all spring and all summer because we all have that goal — reaching the NCAA Tournament,” Powell said. “But Coach has had that goal for 15 years. She started this program from scratch, from nothing. She has done so much for us, for SMU, and she has so much pride in this team and in each of us. She deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament.”

If the Ponies needed evidence they can compete with NCAA Tournament-caliber teams, it came in the season-opening Baylor Tournament in Waco, which SMU won with consecutive victories over Butler, Baylor and Stephen F. Austin.

“Winning that tournament was huge for us,” senior middle blocker Caitlin Adair said. “Going down there and winning that, beating a Big 12 team like Baylor … this is probably the first year we have gone into our matches not always feeling like underdogs. Before, we would play our hearts out, but we didn’t always expect to win. That’s not the way it is now. We feel like we belong on the court with anyone we play.”

Seifert said that playing in the Baylor Tournament was by design, as she has sought to challenge her team by increasing the level of competition.

“We have scheduled as tough as we can within the confines of our operating budget,” Seifert said. “Playing tough matches out of conference, against teams like Baylor, New Mexico, the California schools (SMU beat UC-Santa Barbara and Sacramento State and fell to UC-Davis in the championship game of the SMU Tournament) … those matches helped prepare us for our conference matches, and if we make it to the NCAAs, they’ll have us better-prepared for those matches, as well.”

Wilkerson, who also was named first-team All-Conference USA, said that long before she chose a college, playing in the NCAA Tournament was “a childhood dream,” and said a win Saturday in Tulsa (C-USA has no conference tournament) should eliminate any question about whether the Mustangs qualify for NCAAs.

“I’m still made that we lost to them last time,” Wilkerson said. “They had to have a player (Henderson) get 45 kills to beat us last time. That’s a career night for anyone in the nation.

Saturday’s match against the Golden Hurricane is particularly important to Powell, a Tulsa native.

Outside hitter Dana Powell and her teammates want to be the first SMU team to reach the NCAA Tournament, but she also craves a win over her hometown team: Tulsa (photo by SMU athletics).

“Being the first SMU team to reach the NCAA Tournament is our ultimate goal, but beating Tulsa would be big, too,” Powell said. “I grew up there, playing against a lot of their players. Nobody (in Conference USA) has beaten them this year, but yeah, they’re beatable — it’s possible. To get (Henderson) her 45 kills, they set her about 80 times. In an average match, 50-60 sets is a lot. She had a great match, and they kept feeding her, but we can play with them.”

Now the Mustangs see their goal within sight. There is no assurance that a win gets them in to the NCAA Tournament, and there is no guarantee that a loss Saturday will keep them out. But there is a universal feeling throughout the team that if the Ponies can knock off Tulsa, that should seal the deal.

“We came into the season with goals,” Adair said. “We wanted to win 20 and we did. We wanted to break the record for victories (in a season), and we did.

“Now there’s one more. We want to be the first team to get in. All the time we spent lifting weights and running in the heat over the summer, this is what that was for. We went that extra mile for this. We deserve this.”

A fiercely intense competitor, Seifert admits to a softer side. She admits to crying on Senior Day each season, and said the process of building the program has changed her … a little.

“I realized that for 15 years, I beat the hell out of myself trying to find somebody else’s definition of success in this business,” she said. “But I have never had a boss who put more pressure on me than I have put on myself, whether as an athlete or as a coach.

“What is satisfying about this team is that the work they put in, the commitment they made — they did it on their own. We have a great group of players. These seniors and juniors have laid the foundation for the future success of SMU volleyball. Hopefully, they’ll get to enjoy the reward this year for everything they have done.”