After a disappointing finish to its nine-game road swing, head volleyball coach Joel McCartney said he wants to get back on the court with his team and forget about starting the Southeastern Conference season at 0-2.

Georgia’s first chance to do so begins tonight at 7 against the Kentucky Wildcats at the Ramsey Center. After bad losses to Florida and South Carolina, McCartney said that his team was not together as a unit and they need to focus more on their team spirit. It is a problem that players hope they have solved.

“We just need to become committed to ourselves, to the team and to what our philosophy of playing is and being connected and play together, which we didn’t do last weekend,” freshman setter Kathleen Gates said.

Tonight marks the first time the Bulldogs have played at home since Sept. 2 against Mercer, and the team is happy to get back to Athens.

“I’m so excited because we have great fans here at Ramsey, and it’s great to be back home for the weekend as well,” Gates said.

This will be a huge weekend for Georgia as the team is looking to notch its first win in the SEC, but it won’t be easy.

Kentucky enters the game tonight with a 15-2 record and swept both of its matches to open the SEC season. Georgia considers the game to be a must win, to compensate for its slow start.

“We [will have to] try and make up for the losses that we already have,” sophomore middle-hitter Valentina Gonzalez said. “I think it will be good for our team to come home and be around our environment.”

Georgia’s work for the weekend won’t be done after Friday night. They will face off against another difficult opponent in the Tennessee Volunteers on Sunday, first serve set for 1:30 p.m.

The Vols are 6-4 and 1-0 in the SEC. The Bulldogs know that they can’t take anyone lightly at this point in their schedule.

“Right now I would say that every opponent is a good team,” Gonzalez said. “We just need to come out strong and play our game, rather than playing against whatever team it might be.”

Having not played since Sunday, the Bulldogs feel that they are back on track as far as what it takes to come together as a team.

“We had a week off together and we talked about it Monday, then we had a strong Tuesday [and Wednesday] practice, and coach talked to us and put us back together. So I think we are going to be pretty good this week,” Gonzalez said.