Morrison & Co. looking to bounce back on Sunday at No. 12 Tennessee

Texas A&M volleyball head coach Jamie Morrison joined TexAgs Radio on Tuesday to chat about last week's bump in the road that followed a four-game winning streak. Morrison also looked ahead at the Aggies' upcoming match in Knoxville against 12th-ranked Tennessee.

Key notes from Jamie Morrison interview

• We talk a lot about being optimistic problem solvers. We’re going to find a way out of it, and it’s the same thing when we lose. You have to learn from it. If you don’t, it’s a waste. We have to look at what we can get better at. It was not the weekend we were hoping for. The wind in our sails died in the second set of the Florida match, and it died for the weekend. We will get back to work tomorrow.
   
• You have to identify what went wrong and be honest with yourself as a coach and a player. It has to be different.
   
• What was disappointing last week was a good week of practice. I thought we came out well against Florida. I think it has been learned from, and the page has been turned. We can’t dwell on it. We know what we’re going to work on in practice as we’re on to Tennessee.
   
• After the Missouri loss, we talked about whether this team could play well for a span of two weeks.
   
• The thing we’ve been talking about as a staff is that there are chapters to your season. There’s your non-conference schedule, the conference season and the postseason. When I took over this program, the goal was to get into the NCAA Tournament every single season and to go as far as humanly possible. That’s a new chapter for a lot of people on this team, so we have to treat this chapter as a proving ground.
   
• It is a grind, so I hope it comes across how much empathy and sympathy for student-athletes. Still, it’s a grind that we have to embrace.
   
• I don’t think our team is broken. We didn’t get here because of luck. We have to get back to what got us here. Are there gaping holes in fundamentals and techniques that can be fixed overnight? No, but you can make tweaks. You have to have focused energy.
   
• In the Georgia loss, we were problem-solving within that match. The third set got away from us. We were actively trying to make changes. It wasn’t a lack of effort. They made a couple of plays late, and Georgia played one of their better matches of the year.
   
• Tennessee is balanced. They have people that can hurt you in different ways. Their opposite is a graduate senior, and she’s really good. They’re also good at blocking defense. They slow things down and have a good transition offense. They’re a handful. We’ve been pretty good on the road, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.
   
• For one, it’s about learning each of these teams as we go through the league for the first time. It’s exploration for me, but I’m getting to know the SEC pretty well.
   
• There is a structure to the day when you’re on the road, and there is a flow of focus and unfocus when you’re in it. At home, there is a flow of things you may or may not be doing. Like on a Friday, a player might be in class half the day.