Texas A&M volleyball is headed back to the NCAA Tournament, and the Aggies will open the postseason on Friday against Colorado State in Tempe, Arizona. Before the Maroon & White head west, Jamie Morrison joined TexAgs Live to preview A&M's first-round matchup.
Key notes from Jamie Morrison interview
- I feel great. Many teams don't get to play past their last regular season game, and we get to do that. We get to wake up, go to practice and play some meaningful volleyball this weekend. That is a cool thing.
- I have been talking about the gauntlet of the SEC. With that, every single team has struggled for stretches. Texas had not lost a conference game in 80-something matches when we were able to beat them. They lost three in a row. They were able to get out of that and are playing better now. Kentucky struggled at the beginning of the year, but they figured it out once they reached conference play and won the league. Missouri is struggling right now, losing three of their last four.
- I told our team that I am proud of them for staying true to who we are. We talk a lot about that in our program. We are playing the best volleyball of the year when it matters the most. I am fired up and proud of that.
- There are several different phases to playing your best. One is the mental phase of staying bought in. The second piece is having the end goal in mind to push you through the difficult times.
- Regardless of sport, the season is going to be long. There is always a middle piece where you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. That is where championships are won. The season is not fresh and new anymore. Can you stay dialed in and intentional about what you are doing?
- There is also a physical piece of it. Our sports medicine, strength and conditioning and sports science team has done a really good job making sure our team is physically peaking at the right time, which is right now.
- I don't like to point to specific players. Logan Lednicky has grown up a lot this season. There were times when the team started to dip, and she would not allow it. I will give her a shout-out for that. She recognized when we weren't at the level we needed to be.
- I will put the end of the season on the entire team. They did a really good job of looking into who they wanted to be when we stepped on the court. It wasn't just the people on the floor. The people on the bench decided they would be supportive in their role and bring some fire and energy as a unit. It was fifteen people strong from the athletes.
- For the staff, we stayed true to who we are and how we have trained because we believe it. I thought that paid off.
- Colorado State is a really good volleyball team. It will be a battle of the opposite hitters. Usually, you play teams you have never played before in the tournament. The staff was sprinting from the selection show back to the office to watch their matches. Both teams' opposite hitters are hitting .300 on the year. They both have live arms. They run a pretty fast and smart offense. I haven't got to the block and defense side yet. It will be a really good first-round volleyball matchup and maybe one of the best in the tournament.
- Arizona State and New Hampshire are both good. You never know what can happen in the tournament. We could face one of those two.
- As coaches, we have friends in this profession. Arizona State head coach JJ Van Niel is one of my good friends. I told him I was looking forward to seeing him but not playing against him. It is hard knowing that one of your teams has to go home. They are a good volleyball team, and it will be a challenge if we get to face them. All eyes are on Colorado State right now.
- We gear our scheduling toward playing volleyball teams that will end up in the tournament. That helps from an RPI perspective. Playing teams that are used to winning pushes your team. The SEC was a gauntlet this year. There are a lot of really good volleyball teams, and that is necessary to win.
- People have previously talked about the SEC not having that depth and would say Florida, for example, couldn't win a national championship because of that. The SEC is a completely different conference now. Nine teams made the NCAA Tournament, and the SEC schedule prepared us for the tournament.
- ESPN is putting out a bracket challenge for the volleyball tournament for the first time. There is a A&M group in there. Go in there and put a bracket together.
- Going into the NCAA Tournament this year feels much different than last year. We knew we would be in. It was just a matter of where we were going. That was a very big difference. I woke up not nervous, but I was as soon as the selection show started. All sorts of thoughts were going through my head. There is excitement because this is where we are supposed to be.
