Texas A&M wins NCAA volleyball title with sweep of Kentucky

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Texas A&M hired Jamie Morrison to take over the volleyball program, the Aggies were coming off a 13-16 season and had not had a winning year since 2019.

Three seasons later, the Aggies are national champions.

Texas A&M swept Kentucky on Sunday to win the school’s first volleyball title and cap a run through the NCAA tournament that included a rally from down 2-0 in the regional semifinals against Louisville, a five-set win over top-ranked Nebraska on its home court, and wins over three No. 1 seeds: Nebraska, Pitt and Kentucky.

“This is surreal,” Morrison said after the win. “So proud of this team.”

The Aggies (29-4) were led by nine seniors, including four who had played together on the Houston Skyline club team. They decided to stay after the coaching change and bought in to Morrison’s vision.

“We said a million times we wanted to build the program,” said Logan Lednicky, who led A&M with 11 kills on Sunday to go along with seven digs. “But this is beyond my wildest dreams.”

Lednicky, Maddie Waak, Ava Underwood and Morgan Perkins were four seniors who had played together since their days on the Houston Skyline club team, which won a national title in 2019 and were coached by Jen Woods, now an assistant at A&M.

“There’s been so much put into this by every person involved in this program, said Underwood, who led the team with 10 digs on Sunday. ‘We’ve worked so hard and given so much. I feel like we deserve it.

Waak had 29 assists in the final and set up the winning kill by Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, another of the seniors.

“We persevere,” Cos-Okpalla said.

That was evident again on Sunday.  The Aggies trailed by six points in the first set and didn’t lead until 25-24 on a block by Cos-Okpalla. Kyndal Stowers finished off the 26-24 first-set win for the Aggies with a tip off the Kentucky block.

“Response, that’s what it’s been about all season,” Morrison said. “This team will not give up.”

The second set was all A&M as the Aggies took a 15-7 lead and coasted to a 25-15 win. 

A&M’s pressure forced Kentucky to make 15 errors in the first two sets.

Texas A&M led 13-10 in the third set before a kill by Lednicky started a 6-1 scoring run for a commanding 19-11 lead, six points from the national championship. The Aggies won 25-20 with Cos-Okpalla getting the final point on a kill in the middle, which was set up by Waak.

Stowers, a sophomore, was one of the newcomers to the Aggies. She played as a freshman at Baylor but sat out a season because of concussions. After being cleared to play, she transferred to A&M.

“This team was there for me,” said Stowers, who had 10 kills and six digs in the final. “If this isn’t pure joy, I don’t know what is.”

Reid Laymance reported from Houston.