The A&M-Commerce volleyball team will close out its season on Saturday when they play Southeastern Oklahoma State University at home. The Lions (24-8, 8-4 in LSC) are now guaranteed at least fourth place in the LSC table and a place in the LSC tournament.
Southeastern Oklahoma, on the other hand, is still fighting to get into the end of season tournament. They are sitting in eighth place and are in a three-way tie with Texas Woman’s University and East Central University with a 5-7 LSC record.
After disposing of East Central Thursday night in a 25-16, 25-18, 28-26, 25-19 win, the Lions are sitting on a two game winning streak and set to finish three places higher than they did last season.
“We expected to be better than we were last year,” head coach Mark Pryor said. “Our only goal was to finish the same or higher.”
Pryor expects Southeastern Oklahoma to play with plenty of intensity since they need wins to secure a conference tournament place.
“The last game is really important,” he said. “Southeastern Oklahoma is going to be playing unbelievably hard, because they’ve got to win their last two to get in.”
This is a similar situation to A&M-Commerce’s previous three LSC games. Cameron University, East Central and Midwestern State are all fighting for tournament spots, so the Lions are used to this type of opponent.
“The last three matches that we’ve had, all of those teams are playing like crazy just to get into the conference tournament,” Pryor said. “We’ve got to match that urgency and that energy, and if we do then we’ll be fine.”
Senior Lauren Flynn, who recorded 33 digs in Thursday night’s win, also said the key to beating Southeastern is having consistent intensity.
“I think if we have a good team energy and minimize mistakes, we can definitely take care of them,” she said. “They’re a good team, I’m not going to put them down for that. But, if we work hard, we should take care of them.”