Jamie Morrison & Co. have earned their 'second chance' vs. Wisconsin

Texas A&M volleyball is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019, and the Aggies will take on No. 2 seed Wisconsin in Lincoln on Friday evening. During Tuesday's edition of TexAgs Live, head coach Jamie Morrison spoke about his team's NCAA Tournament run and more.

Key notes from Jamie Morrison

• I’m back! I’ve earned the right to come back into this studio.
   
• I came here with a vision of what this program has been and should be. This has been a perennial Sweet 16 team. My first goal when I got here was to bring it back to that. I didn’t know it would happen in two years. It has been a lot of work and buy-in from our players, but we’re back where this program belongs.
   
• We were five points in vs. Arizona State, and I felt good about winning because it was a good matchup. Our team was in the right mindset. Colorado State was a gauntlet, and to have gotten through that, I told the team we were the only team there that had been battle-tested. When we stepped out, there was this confidence and joy we were playing with of being in the moment. Once we had that, I felt good. We were enjoying competing. That’s huge. When I felt that, I felt we could beat anybody. I was fired up and proud of our team.
   
• At some point, we slipped into just playing volleyball. If we can control the moment, we’re in a better spot than our opponent. We got there vs. Arizona State. Colorado State pushed us and allowed us to get to that mindset. It makes me really excited for Wisconsin this weekend.
   
• Logan Lednicky was good. I got asked in the press conference about Lednicky and Emily Hellmuth. I don’t think I looked at stats, and I was just talking about how our team felt. After that, something popped up on social media that Lednicky hit .500. I was like, “.500?!” In our sport, hitting efficiency is similar to a batting average, but we subtract errors. For us, it’s how many times you got a kill minus how many times you had an error. She was getting a kill about six out of every eight times she took a swing. An elite hitter is usually around .300. To have that kind of night in that type of moment is huge. It was a team effort, and there were a lot of people that were firing. Still, that number is silly.
   
• Taking that timeout, I thought there was a joyous feeling through the first three sets, and then it probably popped into our heads that we might go to the Sweet 16. In an endeavor, if you start thinking about the future, you’re no longer in the moment, which is where you need to be. I just said something along the lines of, “If we lose track of being here in this moment, we’re going to forget to enjoy it.” We talked the entire match about it being the most fun I’ve had in a match during my entire coaching career because our team was playing freely and with joy. We started to forget that in the fourth set. Going back to playing joyfully allowed us to pull out on top.
   
• I’m proud of this group and the work they’re doing. Texas A&M volleyball is back where it should be, and that’s in the Sweet 16. Our next job is to keep it there. This upgrades the perceptions of the program, and hopefully people are seeing it as a place where you can go to be developed. This was developing the talent that was here. We’re going to win. This is just proof of that. We’re going to continue to push this thing further now than where it has been. For the coaching staff, this also validates that we’re doing things the right way.
   
• We’ve grown a lot since we played Wisconsin earlier this season. I said it right before the selection show started when I told the team that whoever we got would be scared to play us because we’re playing really good volleyball right now. Our girls have talked recently about peaking at the right time.
   
• Wisconsin is a good volleyball team, and it’s a storied program. I have a ton of respect for their head coach and their program. They’re large and athletic. They have a lot of size and play at a high level. They’re led by Sarah Franklin, and what sets her apart is her ability to play the game. She’s 6-foot-4 with a heavy arm, but she can pass the volleyball. It will be a good challenge, but we’re better now.
   
• The first time we played Wisconsin, we lost a second set that we should’ve won. We talked about wanting a second chance. I said then that I hoped we got the chance to play them in the NCAA Tournament. We’re playing really good volleyball at the right time.