COMMERCE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team return home for a Tuesday match against Midwestern State.
 
WHO: Texas A&M-Commerce (13-7, 8-2 LSC) vs. Midwestern State (9-10, 3-7 LSC)
WHERE: The Field House in Commerce, Texas
WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m.
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
LIVE VIDEO: lionathletics.com/live
TICKETS: Click HERE
 
The Lions are coming off of two road wins over the weekend. They won a tightly-contested five set match against West Texas A&M on Friday before turning around to sweep UT Permian Basin on Saturday. Head coach Craig Case was proud of his team for battling against WT in front of a huge crowd on Friday.
 
"We had a good amount of fight," he said. "We played really competitively. And I think we played with pretty good focus. Obviously at WT, it is a good team and it is a tough place to play. They had a lot of fans and it was loud. Multiple times during the match, we couldn't hear the whistle. That was a great environment."
 
The Lions then turned around to face UTPB less than 12 hours later. Case said it was a challenge for his team, but they rose to it and were able to sweep the match against the Falcons.
 
"I thought it was tough to focus at times," Case said about Saturday's game. "Coming off that big win and then turning around and playing a little bit more than 12 hours later, and having to try and regenerate that energy, it's tough. Fortunately we came out and had good energy and, when we lost focus, we were able to get it back quick enough to not let Permian Basin go on a lot of long runs. They went on a few runs but we were able to get refocused and limit those."
 
The Lions are now on a seven-game winning streak. It is their longest winning streak under Case and the longest since the 2009 season. Coach Case doesn't think he has any secret formula to winning so many games in a row. He knows the key is to just focus his team on the next match and not let anything else distract them.
 
"The key has been not knowing," Case said of the streak. "I didn't even know how many matches we had won in a row until the gals were talking about it at dinner. But I think that is kind of the whole team. I don't know that anybody is talking about that unless it is brought up. We are not sitting in practice going, 'the reason we have been able to win all these matches is because we are doing this.' What we are talking about in practice is, 'this is what winning volleyball looks like. Let's focus on that.'

"I don't think there is a secret. We aren't doing anything differently than anybody else is. We are just going out and we are focused on doing our jobs the best we can. When you do that, good things tend to happen."
 
The Lions now will face Midwestern State on Tuesday. A&M-Commerce swept the Mustangs on Sept. 30 on the road. Case knows it is dangerous to think the team can easily repeat those results at home. He knows it will be a challenge to defeat MSU, no matter the venue or previous success.
 
"Going in thinking we are going to sweep anybody is a recipe for disaster," he said. "They are a good team. Statistically, they are either one spot ahead of us or one spot behind us in basically every team category that we keep. It will be evenly matched teams. Both teams are good defensively; both teams are really good blockers and really good servers. We've got to play really well. We have to see what they are doing and adjust quicker and not let them go on big runs.
 
"It is going to be a tough match. They are well coached. They have really good players. I'm expecting a battle tomorrow night and hopefully everybody on the team is as well."
 
The match will be a part of Youth Sports Day. Case hopes the fans will be filled with young volleyball players.
 
"Youth sports are important," Case said. "There is not a player on our team that showed up the first day of college and decided they wanted to play volleyball. Everybody has been through that process and has played at every level. It is an important opportunity to celebrate those youth organizations, the coaches that are involved in that, and the parents that are making the sacrifices to get their kids into those things. Often, that parent sacrifice, financially and with time, more than anything, gets overlooked. It should be a fun night and hopefully an awful lot of young volleyball players come out."
 
Tickets for Tuesday's match are available at WeAreLionsTix.com, by calling (903) 468-8756 or by visiting the Lion Sales & Service Box Office in the Field House.