Jamie Morrison's Aggies get next test at No. 24 Auburn on Sunday

Texas A&M volleyball welcomed the largest crowd in program history to Reed Arena on Friday, and the Aggies got their first SEC win of 2024 on Sunday. At 1-1 in league play, Jamie Morrison joined TexAgs Live on Tuesday morning as the Ags prepare to battle No. 24 Auburn this week.

Key notes from Jamie Morrison interview

• I am doing great. I gave the girls a couple of days off, and I took one day off yesterday. We are getting back to work today. For coaches, there is always something to do. For the athletes, they have this thing called school.
   
• We got done with a nail-biter on Sunday, and then they had to get up and go to class at 8 a.m. the next morning. SEC play is a grind for reasons outside of volleyball, too. We are in the thick of it.
   
• I try to do some work from home. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old. When I'm around, I want to be present. I try to balance those two things as much as I can.
   
• To everybody who showed up to our game Friday, thank you first and foremost. The atmosphere was amazing. I have gone to football games and wondered what it was like to play in that kind of atmosphere. I got a taste of that. It was unlike anything I have ever been a part of, including the Olympics. It was an amazing atmosphere and experience. I took this job because of that seed being planted and that being possible every night. We will get there.
   
• The good against Texas was the second set. I think the crowd shocked us a little bit in the first set. It took some getting used to playing in front of 9,000 people. We got our feet under us in the second set. I thought we were good enough to win either the third or fourth set and push the match to five. Then you never know what will happen. It is about winning one of those two points in either of those two sets to extend the match to five. Then, we are battling for 15 points.
   
• The good is that we are good. That is the thing I know for a fact right now, especially after this weekend. We have to make sure we are able to push those two points within a match.
   
• Having to move on so quickly to Missouri is probably the toughest piece of that match. It was such an emotional high and low of having that crowd and losing that match on Friday. I am going to keep saying it because it is true: The SEC season is going to be a grind. I can't point to a team and say they will win the SEC. We have upsets happening left and right. Every single night will be a battle.
   
• We started off well against Missouri. We were up 8-2. They had one server that went back and had one of the most consistent serves I have seen. It had some float and was moving around. She rattled off 10 straight points, and all of a sudden, we were on our heels. I thought that infected the rest of our game. We were playing passively across the board. I thought we started playing more aggressively towards the end of the second set.
   
• The third set ended up close, and they stretched out a little bit of a lead. We are going to have different people that can come in. Margot Manning and Ital Lopuyo came in and turned that match with a couple of good blocks and swings. All of a sudden, it was 22-22, and we were battling. Maybe not even until that run was I like, "Alright, here we go."
   
• Once we got into the fourth set, we had our feet underneath us, and we were pushing into them. Missouri was starting to make some errors that were uncharacteristic. I felt pretty good going into the fourth set.
   
• I think having some time off is one of the biggest things. You are trying to manage the load that comes with these matches. Last week, we only had two days of practice. Other than that, it is all prep work for beating Texas and Missouri. We send videos out at the beginning of the week.
   
• When we get four to five days of practice, we can relearn some of the stuff we learned at the beginning of the year that made us the team that we are. We will get to do some of that tomorrow.
   
• Auburn is No. 24 in the country right now. They have had a really good season. They beat Kentucky, one of the stalwarts at the top of our league, in five sets in the first match of SEC play. They are 2-0 in conference and are humming right now. They run a pretty quick offense. There will be some challenges we start getting ready for on Thursday and Friday.
   
• Traditionally, Missouri is a really scrappy team, and they extend rallies. You just had to sit in there and be OK with hitting .190. That is pretty low. This year, they are hitting .330, and I thought it was going to be an offensive battle. In the first couple of sets, we were hitting .520, and they were hitting .560. As a coach, you look at that kind of thing and determine what you have to do to beat a specific team. You have to do A, B and C. Those things may be different for each team we face.
   
• I feel good about the direction we are going. We are playing good volleyball. I could see us finishing first or tenth in the SEC. That is why the Missouri comeback is so huge. We are going to have to fight and claw for every single win in the SEC this year. There is no easy day.
   
• The 10th-best team in the SEC this year could get close to winning the national title. I think we will get 10 teams into the NCAA Tournament this year. The league is that deep, and everyone is going to beat up on everybody. It makes for entertaining volleyball.