COMMERCE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team will play its final non-conference match of the regular season on Tuesday. The Lions will finish a five-game road trip with a match against Southeastern Oklahoma State.
 
WHO: Texas A&M-Commerce (8-7, 4-2 LSC) vs. Southeastern Oklahoma State (5-12, 1-4 GAC)
WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 6 p.m.
WHERE: Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium in Durant, Okla.
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
LIVE VIDEO: gosoutheastern.com/sports/2015/8/31/GEN_0831155904.aspx
 
The Lions are coming off a pair of conference road wins. A&M-Commerce defeated Cameron 3-1 on Friday and swept Midwestern State on Saturday. Head coach Craig Case was pleased with how his team responded on the road after two early conference road losses.
 
"The biggest thing for us was addressing things that we struggled with the weekend before," Case said. "The things we were most critical of were leadership and our ability to serve and pass. I thought we did a really good job of focusing on our passing and focusing on our serving and having that be more a part of our game. I think it certainly helped us."
 
Now having been able to win consecutive games on the road, Case hopes his team can gain confidence in their own ability to perform in an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile environment.
 
"Hopefully they have figured out how hard it is [to win on the road] and hopefully they have figured out they are capable of doing it," he said. "Hopefully we can continue to do that moving forward. We will have another good opportunity tomorrow night to work on our road game and figure out how to play in somebody else's gym."
 
Case liked the balance his team was able to have. While it might be difficult statistically to point out who had the biggest impact, Case sees this as a positive. It means everyone on the team is sharing the load and contributing.
 
"I think we did a really good job of being balanced," he said. "We didn't have one person play the best weekend of their life, but we didn't need to when everybody played pretty solid. I think everybody did a really good job this weekend. Our defensive specialists and our primary passers obviously stepped up. I thought everybody did a good job and contributed to the win.  When everybody does their share, it makes things more manageable."
 
 
The Lions will now face their final non-conference match of the regular season. While the Savage Storm have lost six of their previous seven matches, Case is not chalking the game up already as a win. He sees a talented team that will be tough to handle in their own gym.
 
"They've got a lot of really good hitters," Case said of SOSU. "They have a really talented setter that can do a lot of things and create a lot of problems. I think they serve well and they pass well, especially at home. We are going to have to go in tomorrow night and make things happen and try to come out and be the sharper team and the more energetic team early."
 
While the match will not affect the Lions' conference record, it is another chance for the team to improve its regional standings. With so many common opponents between the two teams, Case knows this is an important match to come out on top.
 
I think it is critical to continue to develop our road game and figure out how to win in someone else's gym," he said. We have got to keep getting better at that– at weathering the storm of a team that's playing with a lot of pride at home. We've got to be able to do that.
 
"It is a big match. We've got a lot of shared opponents with them. A lot of other teams that we are going to be evaluated against at the regional level will have already played them. We've got to make sure that we take our opportunity to beat them. Hopefully we will play our best and will be in a position to do that."