COMMERCE– The No. 25 Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team will host two Lone Star Conference matches this weekend. The Lions will face Cameron on Friday and MSU Texas on Saturday.
 
WHO: No. 25 Texas A&M-Commerce (10-4, 2-2 LSC) vs. Cameron (2-12, 0-4 LSC)
WHERE: The Field House in Commerce, Texas
WHEN: Friday, Sept. 21 at 6 p.m.
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
LIVE VIDEO: lionathletics.com/live
TICKETS: Click HERE
 
WHO: No. 25 Texas A&M-Commerce vs. MSU Texas (2-10, 0-4 LSC)
WHERE: The Field House in Commerce, Texas
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 22 at 2 p.m.
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
LIVE VIDEO: lionathletics.com/live
TICKETS: Click HERE
 
The Lions are coming off of a 3-1 win over Dallas Baptist on Tuesday. Lion head coach Craig Case liked how his team competed throughout the match against a tough regional foe.
 
"I thought both teams played well," Case said of the match. "Dallas Baptist is a really good volleyball team. They have a lot of talented players and they did some things really well that we hadn't seen them do in film. We had a game plan to attack them in certain areas and when we did that, I thought DBU handled that well.
 
"That made us go into our second, third and fourth levels of things we were trying to get done. I thought our team started quickly and we had a real competitive response to DBU's second set. That third set was tightly contested and we did a good job of being highly competitive in that set and that carried into the fourth set."
 
Prior to Tuesday's match, the LSC announced Jaryn Wacker (Austin - Vista Ridge) as Offensive Player of the Week and Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) as Setter of the Week. Case liked the way both players performed against DBU, continuing their good play from the previous week.
 
"I think the biggest thing with both of them, if they are disciplined, they are good," Case said of Wacker and Vela. "One of the things we talked about early in the season, when we didn't know how good we were, is we felt like we had a really good team and we could beat a lot of teams. All we needed to do is play our best volleyball. We didn't need to play better than we were. We just need to play our best. And the two of them did that on Tuesday night really well. I was really happy with the way they played. It is fun to watch good players play good volleyball."
 
The Lions now face Cameron and MSU Texas. The Lions swept both series a season ago but Case remembered both home matches against the teams. He knows it will not be an easy task to beat either team.
 
"Both Midwestern and Cameron took us to five sets last year in our gym in front of gigantic crowds," he said. "We expect them to play their best. We have to be ready for that and play at a high level of intensity and competitiveness. We have to play our best level of volleyball."
 
While the teams come into the week with a combined 0-8 record in LSC play, Case is making sure his players do not overlook their opponents. He knows his team needs to compete as well as they can.
 
"With both of them, they don't have great records right now, but they have really good players," Case said. "It is a tough situation because one of the things that happens with players or even fans is they see that record and assume we will beat the other team. We have been trying to get our players focused on their players and not on their records.
 
"You look at our own team. We won three five-set matches in that second tournament. If one or two points go the other way, suddenly we are 1-3 that week. Volleyball seasons are crazy like that. We have to focus on being competitive in the moment and focused on our intensity. We have to have a disciplined game plan and execute all weekend."
 
Tickets for both matches are available at WeAreLionsTix.com or by visiting the Lion Sales & Service Box Office in the Field House.