It’s down to Kentucky and Texas A&M in this year’s women’s college volleyball championship. Here’s where to stream it online

No. 1 seed Kentucky and No. 3 seed Texas A&M will face off in the 2025 D-1 Women’s Volleyball National Championship. These are three important things to look at heading into the match.

The History-

Kentucky went on the road to defeat Texas A&M in four sets on Oct. 8. This was the only Aggies regular season conference loss.

Texas A&M hit .205% against the Wildcats, which was its second lowest mark of the season. The Aggies also totaled five blocks which ties for the second lowest in a match this season.

Kentucky had nine unassisted kills in the match vs Texas A&M, which was the most in a match all season.

The Wildcats have won its last four matchups against Texas A&M and  nine of the last 11. The Cats lead the all-time series 17-10.

This is the first time that two SEC teams have faced off in the national championship.

Kentucky is the only team to win the national championship as a member of the SEC.

The Wildcats are making their second national championship appearance in program history, it’s the first for Texas A&M.

The Stars Are Out in Kansas City-

Texas A&M was the only team with four players named to the All-SEC First Team with Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, Logan Lednicky, Kyndal Stowers and Maddie Waak.

Kentucky was the only team with three members of the All-SEC First Team in Brooklyn DeLeye, Eva Hudson and Kassie O’Brien. Kentucky also had Molly Tuozzo on the All-SEC Second Team.

Hudson, DeLeye and Cos-Okpalla were all named as AVCA First-Team All-Americans. O’Brien, Lednecky and Stowers were named to the AVCA All-American Second Team. Tuozzo and Waak made the AVCA All-American Third Team

Kentucky is led by the 2020-21 AVCA National Coach of the Year Craig Skinner. Kentucky’s head coach was named the 2025 SEC Coach of the Year, his seventh time earning that title.

The 2025 AVCA Coach of the Year, Jamie Morrison, is the head coach of the Aggies.

Path to the National Championship-

Kentucky has not lost in three months and 11 days. The Wildcats last loss came against Pitt on Sept. 10. Since then the Cats have won 27 straight matches.

Along the way, Kentucky picked up its ninth consecutive regular season conference title, won the first SEC postseason tournament in 20 years and made the second national championship appearance in program history,

The Cats rolled through the Lexington Regional with sweeps over Cal Poly and No. 3 seeded Creighton. These two teams were held to a combined hitting percentage of just .086%, averaging 9.67 kills per set.

In the Final Four, Kentucky took down No. 3 Wisconsin in five sets. Wisconsin led in many important stats such as kills, assists and digs. Despite this, Kentucky won the match to advance to the national championship.

Since losing to Kentucky, Texas A&M is 16-1 with that loss coming against Texas in the SEC Tournament semi-final. 

The Aggies have taken down three teams ranked top-10 in the AVCA poll, reaching the national championship with wins over No. 9 Louisville, No. 4 Pittsburgh and No. 1 Nebraska.

Nebraska and Pitt were both No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, which made Texas A&M just the third No. 3 seed to eliminate two No. 1 seeds.

Texas A&M’s last two wins were over the only two teams to beat Kentucky this season.

The championship match will take place inside the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri on Sunday, Dec. 21 at 3:30 p.m. ET.

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Photos: Wisconsin volleyball 2025 season in photos

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two moves ultimately stood above the rest amid an avalanche of volleyball activity in the transfer portal late last year: Eva Hudson from Purdue to Kentucky and Kyndal Stowers from Baylor to Texas A&M.

It was a literal shift of power from the Big Ten and the Big 12 to the SEC.

Hudson and Stowers committed within 30 minutes of each other, as Texas A&M coach Jamie Morrison remembers it. They were stars at their former schools — in two leagues that have combined to win 16 national championships in this sport over the past 26 seasons.

Morrison’s first thought? Fun times ahead in the SEC.

Their impact has resonated more widely. Sunday at T-Mobile Center and in front of an ABC audience, Kentucky (30-2) and Texas A&M (28-4) will play for the national championship. Hudson and Stowers are All-Americans. They provide just a segment of the firepower on stacked rosters for the Wildcats and Aggies.

The SEC has arrived as a force in women’s volleyball, in position to challenge the Big Ten as the best conference nationally. The conference secured a second national championship — and the first in a traditional fall season — with semifinal wins Thursday by Kentucky against Wisconsin and Texas A&M against Pitt.

KENTUCKY. TEXAS A&M. FOR IT ALL 🏆

The first ALL-SEC National Championship in NCAA Volleyball history 🙌@KentuckyVB | @AggieVolleyball pic.twitter.com/rpBxTCVrTu

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) December 19, 2025

The Wildcats won it all in the pandemic-adjusted 2020 season, played in the spring of 2021.

That championship remains the most treasured by Greg Sankey, he said, among the football- and baseball-heavy collection assembled in his decade as SEC commissioner.

“It broke down doors,” Kentucky coach Craig Skinner said, “that either Kentucky could do it again or someone else in the league can do it.”

When Sankey visited Lexington on Labor Day weekend in 2021, Kentucky and Skinner presented him with a national championship ring.

“I don’t get emotional much,” Sankey said Thursday after watching the Aggies and Wildcats win. “But to know all that had taken place to get to that point, it’s something we had never done as a league.”

Not long after Sankey took power in 2015, he saw the potential for growth in volleyball and wanted a piece of the action. Florida, under coach Mary Wise, who retired after last season, had long carried the SEC flag. But the Gators never reached the mountaintop, losing in national championship matches against USC in 2003 and Nebraska in 2017.

Then came Kentucky’s breakthrough.

The popularity of volleyball is exploding. Viewership and participation nationally are on the rise. The professional game has emerged in the United States, with two major women’s leagues (Major League Volleyball and League One Volleyball). In the SEC, Vanderbilt rekindled its program after 45 years. Schools are shattering attendance records and devoting name, image and likeness resources to the sport.

Sankey, looking for an edge, pushed for the SEC to rekindle its postseason tournament, which it hadn’t staged since 2005.

The Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC do not contest postseason championships. The logic? Top programs build resumes strong enough to earn high seeds in the NCAA Tournament without a taxing finish to November.

The commissioner “begged and pleaded,” according to Morrison, knowing that a tournament would create opportunities for exposure and growth.

And with four-time national champion Texas on board after it won consecutive titles in the Longhorns’ final seasons in the Big 12, the time was right.

The tournament came back this year in Savannah, Ga., featuring all 16 programs in a five-day event. Kentucky and Texas played three matches in three days. The Wildcats outlasted the Longhorns in five sets in the final.

“I know volleyball when I’m looking around the country,” Morrison said. “Seeing what us, what Kentucky and what Texas were doing, I thought those were three of the best teams — if not the three best teams — in the country as we went through the season.”

Texas A&M pulled off the upset of the season when it beat No. 1 Nebraska to reach the final four. (Dylan Widger / Imagn Images)

The Aggies made a statement in winning a regional semifinal in five sets against Louisville, the national runner-up a year ago. A&M’s five-set upset against No. 1 Nebraska then punched the Aggies’ first ticket to a national semifinal.

“We’re one of the most prepared teams in the country,” Morrison said. “Kentucky is the same way because they had the same path.”

Kentucky lost this year against Pitt and Nebraska. A&M beat them both in the past week.

The Wildcats beat Texas twice. The Aggies split with the Longhorns.

All that’s left is to settle things on the court. In their lone meeting this year, Kentucky won in College Station, Texas, on Oct. 8 in four sets.

“That feels like a really long time ago,” A&M senior Emily Hellmuth said. “It’s hard to honestly remember, so much has happened since then.

“I think we left feeling like there was a lot of unfinished business there.”

The Aggies lost the final set of that first match, 27-25. Hudson and Stowers, the high-impact transfers, traded the final five kills.

The transfer of power now complete, they’re ready on Sunday to put on a show of SEC force.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Brian Hosfeld has been hired as the 11th Head Coach of New Mexico Volleyball, Vice President/Director of Athletics Fernando Lovo announced on Sunday.

Hosfeld arrives in Albuquerque after a four-year stint as Associate Head Coach at Wichita State with over three decades of coaching experience under his belt. During Hosfeld’ s tenure in Wichita, the Shockers accumulated an 81-46 (.638) record, winning an AAC Tournament title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament in 2024. He also departed Baylor as the winningest head coach in school history in addition to winning a national title as an assistant at Long Beach State and reaching the Final Four three times as an assistant at Texas.

“I’m grateful to Athletic Director Fernando Lovo and his executive team—Ryan Berryman, Amy Beggin, and Kasey Byers—for the trust they’ve shown me throughout this process,” said Hosfeld. “I’m honored and excited to represent the University of New Mexico as the next head coach of women’s volleyball.

“The opportunity to build alongside our student-athletes—developing them on and off the court—is what excites me most. UNM is a special place with good history, and I can’t wait to begin this journey with the Lobo family.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to begin a new chapter for Lobo Volleyball with Brian at the helm,” said Lovo. “He brings an abundance of experience on the biggest stages of collegiate volleyball and is a proven winner with a commitment to the values we share as part of the Lobo family.

“His leadership qualities, character and track record of success stood out to us in our search and will be pivotal as we strive to bring home championships to Albuquerque.”
 
Hosfeld began his coaching career at Long Beach State in 1993, winning the national championship in his first season with the 49ers – that season, the 49ers went 32-2, only dropping two sets in their entire NCAA Tournament run. 

After three seasons at Long Beach, he was chosen to lead the Baylor program in 1996, departing eight years later as the winningest coach in program history with 129 victories to his name. Under Hosfeld’s leadership, Baylor reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history in 1999, going on to qualify again in 2001.
 
Following his tenure in Waco, Hosfeld joined the staff at Texas in 2004, working primarily with the Longhorns defense and middle blockers. He helped formulate one of the most productive defensive units in the nation, with the Longhorns winning three consecutive Big 12 titles and reaching the Final Four in 2008, 2009 and 2010 — UT advanced to the national championship match in 2009. With Hosfeld on staff, Texas posted an overall record of 186-33, winning at an .849 clip.
 
Hosfeld has also coached at the international level, leading the 2005 USA Volleyball A2 junior national team and USA Volleyball to a silver medal at the 1997 World University Games in Sicily, Italy. Prior to his work with that team, Hosfeld served as USA Volleyball’s director of the World University and National Team tryouts at the Olympic Training Center.
 
Hosfeld’s most recent collegiate coaching experience before heading to Wichita came as an interim assistant coach at Utah, where he spent the 2011 season before transitioning full-time to club volleyball. He helped found nationally-recognized Magnum Volleyball in 1986 and worked with Austin Juniors, Club Red, Arizona East Valley, Spiral and Catalyst before taking over as director of T3 in Coeur d’Alene, where he spent the previous decade before making his return to collegiate volleyball in 2022.