Morrison stresses consistency heading into three-game SEC road trip

Texas A&M volleyball head coach Jamie Morrison joined Tuesday's edition of TexAgs Radio to discuss last week's upset over then-No. 3 Florida and loss to Missouri before looking ahead at the squad's upcoming three-game road trip to Ole Miss, Mississippi State and LSU.

Key notes from Jamie Morrison interview

• Rankings are a public perception, and we have to earn that. You can't go off and drop a match to Missouri. Do I think we're playing volleyball that is worthy of being in the top 25? Yes, but we have to do it consistently. We have to learn to do it for a week, a month, an SEC season and then an entire season. It's an ongoing process that won't finish this season. Change takes time.
   
• If you take matches as single entities, this profession will kill you. The Sunday disappointment comes from the way we played. It's less about the end result because that's not fully in your control. Missouri played a heck of a volleyball match. They out-worked us. We were not at our normal level. Missouri played out of their minds, and they're a good volleyball team. That program will continue to get better. We cannot get outworked. We'll be working on that this week.
   
• Fatigue can come into being outworked. You can't overlook an opponent. We beat No. 4 Florida, and the reason why was the buildup in the week and how we worked in practice. Regardless of the opponent, those things must stay consistent. I'm disappointed in the loss, but we're also much further ahead in terms of culture. We still have room to grow.
   
• If you look at our group, we have Caroline Meuth, who is a super senior, Nisa Buzlutepe, who is a junior, and a bunch of underclassmen. We get everyone back but one player next year. Looking at the totality of this, in terms of culture, this is a big teachable moment for us to talk about grinding moving forward. Sunday was a big bummer, but we can learn from this for the rest of the season and the future of this program.
   
• We've had a bunch of Wednesday matches already, and we only have one Wednesday left for the rest of the season. I'm actually pushing for more Wednesday matches in the schedule. There is space on ESPN to throw Texas A&M vs. Florida volleyball on Wednesdays.
   
• We have to grind on this road trip, and it's a well-timed road trip.
   
• The SEC is a bear. It's a grind. People ask what my biggest surprise has been, and it's that the SEC has been this good this quickly. You've got Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee and plenty of really good teams across the board. The Big Ten has the top two teams in the country, but across the board, the SEC is a grind from top to bottom.
   
• The growth has happened. We can play good volleyball for a set or three or five. Now we have to do it every single day. We're getting into practice today, and we're going to work hard. We're going to go to Ole Miss and do the same thing there. We're going to turn around after that and continue it. We have to get into the cycle of six days of work. When you do that, you can become capable of winning an SEC championship.