David McFatrich is all about creating new habits.

In his first year as Mississippi State volleyball coach, McFatrich guided the Bulldogs to a 17-15 finish and their first winning record since 2006.

MSU capped its 2015 season with a victory against Ole Miss that gave the program its first back-to-back victories against the Rebels since 2009. The win heightened optimism that 2016 could be MSU’s year to take the next step, to entertain thoughts of moving into the upper echelon of the Southeastern Conference, and to compete for its first bid to the NCAA tournament.

Fourteen matches into the 2016 season, McFatrich is still trying to create new habits. At 8-6, MSU historically is in a better place than it typically has been prior to its SEC opener. But McFatrich also admits his team’s record could — maybe should — be even better. That’s why he is looking forward to the rest of this week to help MSU prepare to kick off league play at 6 p.m. Friday at Tennessee (9-3) and at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Kentucky (7-4).

“We have played some really tough teams and played some tough teams very well,” McFatrich said. “We have played some teams we should have beaten and we have gone five (sets) or ended up losing. What it shows is we have the potential to be pretty good and the potential not to be if we don’t close things out and pay attention to the details. We’re not paying attention to the details at crunch time.”

McFatrich made a similar comment Saturday following a 3-2 loss to Portland in the Maroon Classic in Starkville. MSU opened its second home tournament of the season with victories against Florida International (3-2), Troy (3-0), and Eastern Illinois (3-0), but it couldn’t complete a sweep of the weekend, which prompted McFatrich to say in a news release that MSU is “still struggling to execute in crunch time.”

McFatrich said MSU’s execution problems stem from its inability to control the ball with its passing. He said the Bulldogs haven’t passed well enough to help them keep all three attacking options open to them. As a result, opponents have served them tougher to take them out of system and have been able to limit the effectiveness of the Bulldogs’ hitters.

“We’re a pretty solid team digging and serving, but I don’t know if we’re as solid consistently passing as we need to be,” McFatrich said. “We have to keep working on first-ball passing.”

McFatrich said repetition will help players change habits and get more comfortable so they have great technique and they can develop a mind-set that helps them feel like passing is something they know they can do well. Once that happens, McFatrich feels MSU will be able to play at a faster pace and be even more offensive minded.

McFatrich knows MSU will have to play with that kind of attitude this weekend. Entering SEC play, 10 of the league’s 13 teams have winning records. Florida (No. 6) and Texas A&M (No. 19) are the SEC’s only ranked teams, but Kentucky, Missouri, and Ole Miss also have been ranked or also receiving votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) national rankings, so there will be plenty of competition in the 18-match SEC season.

“I think we have learned (from our mistakes),” McFatrich said. “We better have because we’re getting ready to start conference season at Tennessee and Kentucky this week, so we know what we have to do and need to do and want to do. We have to go out and do it.”

McFatrich said consistency will be a key for MSU. He said he has seen too many lulls in play in which the Bulldogs will have a stretch of good, good, good, great, and bad play. He said MSU has to become better over longer periods of time and avoid falling into those stretches where “bad” play allows opponents to come back in matches or seize the momentum. McFatrich feels MSU’s resume (losses to ranked teams like Kansas and Kansas State) is strong enough and that it needs to do well in SEC play to make up for some of the non-conference losses. If it can do that, McFatrich likes his team’s chances to realize its goals of climbing the ladder in the league and staying in contention for NCAA tournament consideration.

“We easily could be 10-4 maybe 11-3, but we’re not, so we have to deal with that,” McFatrich said. “There are going to be some pretty amazing games in our conference with opponents that have high RPI, so our goals remain the same. If we start knocking off some people, we will be in good shape RPI wise.”

Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.