COMMERCE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team is the second seed in the Lone Star Conference postseason tournament and will face No. 7 seed Western New Mexico in the first round. The teams split the season series, with the home team winning each match in four sets.
 
WHO: No. 2 Texas A&M-Commerce (20-10, 15-5 LSC) vs. No. 7 Western New Mexico (9-19, 9-11 LSC)
WHERE: Wisdom Gym in Stephenville, Texas
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 16 at 2:30 p.m.
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
LIVE VIDEO: portal.stretchinternet.com/lonestar/
 
The Lions finished the regular season on a three-game winning streak, defeating UT Permian Basin on Friday and West Texas A&M on Saturday at home. That concluded a perfect home season for the Lions, their first since the 1987 season. Head coach Craig Case was proud of his team for the accomplishment and knows it's a special place where he gets to come to work everyday.
 
"It is just an honor to play here," Case said. "We have great fans and great support on the campus. Our team this year really embraced coming out and competing on behalf of our fans. The reason I love our fans at home during matches is we always feel like they are behind us and we always know they have high expectations. We are constantly having to play up to those expectations. But we also know they are behind us and with us. It was fun playing at home. Now we have to get out on the road and try and duplicate those results in someone else's gym."
 
The Lions also finished the regular season with 20 wins and earned the second seed in the LSC with a conference record of 15-5. This is the highest ranking for the team since 1994. Going into the final weekend of the season, Case knew things could swing so many ways if the team lost. With three teams tied for third place and three more tied for sixth place, the LSC standings were as close as Case can remember from any season before.
 
"Going into the last weekend, we hadn't clinched second," he said. "If we had lost both matches, we would have fallen into that pack with everybody else. Going into that last weekend, we had a two game lead for second with two games to go and there was a three-way tie for third and a three-way tie for sixth. A lot of things happened in that last weekend for things to get broken up. That is a testament to the quality of volleyball in our league."
 
With the quality of volleyball in the league, Case knows the conference tournament will be difficult. He thinks any team can win it and it would not be considered a huge upset.
 
"I don't feel like there are a whole lot of upsets to be had in this conference tournament," he said. "No matter who wins, I think everybody from top to bottom is capable of beating everybody else. There are only two teams in the league that have beaten everybody, that's us and Tarleton. To have that, that tells you how great this league is. This conference tournament is going to be really exciting and I'm really excited to see the level of volleyball and the intensity that is going to be played there. And I hope we will respond to that real positively."
 
The Lions begin the tournament facing Western New Mexico, the seventh seed. With the conference standings being so tightly this season, one different result could have vaulted the Mustangs to fifth place, so Case knows this isn't your typical seventh seed team. The teams split the season series, with the Mustangs defeating the Lions just two weeks ago in Silver City. Case looks past their ranking and their overall record and sees a talented team that will be tough to handle.
 
"I have a ton of respect for their coach," Case said. "He is a legend in the coaching world. He has won a lot of volleyball matches and he hasn't won a lot of them with luck. He has a really good team. They have a lot of talent on that team. I think they are a pretty talented seventh seed, if we are going to be honest. They could have just as easily have been a five seed. There wasn't a whole lot of difference in those situations. We are going to have our work cut out for us but I'm not sitting here saying I wish we were playing [a certain team]. There really is no easy team to play in this conference tournament. We just have to get ready to play them and see if we can identify some things that we did here that worked real well for us that we will try to get going again and see what we struggled with when we played there."
 
The conference tournament is, as Case likes to say, college volleyball at its best. With single elimination games, it is the teams who lock in and play their best that advance. Case feels the final two to three weeks of the regular season really prepared his team for the tournament, because the team has been in playoff mode weeks now.
 
"I think we have been playing playoff volleyball for quite a while, really trying to fight everybody off and hold onto that second seed," he said. "We have that mentality and we are pretty comfortable in it. Going into this last weekend was really a conference tourney weekend. It was people sorting things out, fighting for seeding. All those matches were really important for everybody. I think everybody in the league is going to come in at kind of the same level and the same intensity and the same mindset.
 
All rounds of the LSC Volleyball Championship Tournament will be played at Wisdom Gym in Stephenville. The LSC provides a live web stream free of charge for all matches of the tournament.