Women’s Volleyball

Dec. 14, 2025

Texas A&M after upsetting Nebraska volleyball: ‘We’re the grittiest team in the country by far’

Dec. 14, 2025

Watch the postgame interview with Texas A&M volleyball seniors Kyndal Stowers, Logan Lednicky and Ifenna Cos-Okpalla after the Aggies stunned undefeated No. 1 overall seed Nebraska in a five-set regional final battle.

This story has been told multiple times over the last few years with Nebraska volleyball. Harper Murray said that she would win three more titles the rest of her time with the Huskers two seasons ago. The reverse sweep at the hands of last year’s Penn State team, on the backs of head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley beating cancer, felt like sports destiny. 

Sports destiny seemed to be on their side for the last 16 weeks. An undefeated, storybook season, with the final games of the season just three short hours away in Kansas City, Missouri, seemed almost too perfect to draw up. Then it was all whisked away in a form far too familiar on the biggest stage.

In the regional final, the third-seeded and ninth-overall team, Texas A&M, stormed into Lincoln and fought through one of the greatest regular-season teams of all time. The Aggies did something that no team, not even the Kentucky Wildcats in the fourth game of the season, could do. Kentucky held a two-set lead on Nebraska and couldn’t get the job done in Nashville. But in one of the toughest environments in college sports, not just college volleyball, Texas A&M ran through the proverbial buzzsaw with its own jackhammer.

What had caused the Huskers’ trouble all year long came back to bite them in the worst way: serve receive. Nine aces were recorded by the Aggies today, with eight of those aces coming before intermission. Junior libero Laney Choboy was responsible for five of the first eight aces. After the serve receive seemingly was cleaned up after giving up nine aces to Maryland on Sept. 27, the issue came back to rear its ugly head. Between Sunday’s game and the Maryland match, Nebraska had not given up more than five aces (twice, Oregon and UCLA) in one contest.

Sunday’s match was a grueling dogfight all the way around, something unlike Nebraska had seldom seen all season long. See to the 37-35 set four score, which felt like a repeat of Oregon’s 41-39 set two win over Minnesota in the 2018 tournament. The fight never ran out. Until it was too late.

No matter where the 2025 Huskers finished in the tournament, the squad would live forever in the history books. A perfect regular season with a coach at her alma mater with a legend riding off into the sunset? The storylines wrote themselves.

Written with emotion, Nebraska experienced what they thought they wouldn’t this year. Since summer workouts, whether it was spoken into existence or not, the goal really was championship or bust. Finishing first in a grueling Big Ten wouldn’t suffice. Neither would a regional title. Nor would an appearance in the title game. Only would hoisting the big prize on December 21, 2025, inside the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, be enough.

The difference between 2023’s dominant team and 2025’s was the heat check that came in the regular season. The Huskers’ loss to rival Wisconsin, a three-set drubbing on Black Friday, allowed for an opportunity to reset themselves before postseason play began just a week later. That opportunity was not afforded to this version of Nebraska because they were far too dominant all season long.

The Huskers assembled one of the largest rosters in recent memory, fueled by an NIL siphon into a program that has risen to stardom not just on a national, but on a worldwide scale. With 17 players on the roster, the talent rivaled an all-star caliber squad that a professional team could put together. Depth bit them right in the foot.

With freshman setter Campbell Flynn breaking her finger earlier in the week, and senior opposite hitter Allie Sczech suffering a freak accident during warmups, the roster was already smaller. With three redshirts on the bench, that meant only 12 active bodies. Nebraska head coach Dani Busboom Kelly attributes the thin bench, but also sickness floating around the locker room, as part of the problem at hand.

No depth problem will be able to sideline the performance on the court.

Freshman middle blocker Manaia Ogbechie was thrust into the limelight with junior counterpart Andi Jackson struggling to find any kind of momentum. With a few more healthy bodies, Busboom Kelly might have had a chance to sub in Flynn or Sczech for an under-the-weather Reilly or an at-times struggling freshman opposite Virginia Adriano.

“I think she’s really mature for her age and as a competitor,” senior middle blocker Rebekah Allick said postgame on Ogbechie. “We told her just to hit everything, and she did that.”

The celebration that Nebraska has had so close in their grasp has availed them times aplenty. Over the last three seasons, the Huskers are 99-6 but with just one appearance on the sport’s biggest stage. Texas A&M will now get to be front and center for the first time ever.

A team of dreams, overlooked by many in their own conference, with rival Texas and Kentucky running away with their regionals, slayed the giant. David took down Goliath.

“There are no words to describe this feeling,” senior outside hitter Logan Lednicky said postgame. “Why not us?”

The team that has yelled “Why not us?” from the mountaintop, a program that has built itself from the ground up since head coach Jamie Morrison’s arrival, can now scream that same phrase when they play the Pittsburgh Panthers on Thursday in the same gym Nebraska wanted to get to. 

“We have the most wins that this program has ever had,” Morrison said postgame after achieving his 27th win of the year. “That’s not an accident.”

Nor is it an accident that they will play for the national title. It wasn’t going to be an accident that the Huskers could play for a national title either. 

“I wanted to be somewhere that could be developed into one of the best programs in the country,” senior middle blocker Ifenna Coz-Okpalla said postgame. “To be sitting here after beating Nebraska, it’s insane.”

A Husker team that was hyped all year long has fallen short of its goals. A national champion banner is still waiting to be hoisted inside the Bob Devaney Sports Center after their most recent in 2017. So many close calls. So many heartbreaks. The book is far from being finished.

Look to the alumni who continue to be a part of the program even though their eligibility is gone. Merritt Beason and Leyla Blackwell, two graduates from the 2024 team, were in attendance on Sunday. Lexi Rodriguez, arguably one of the greatest liberos in college volleyball, continues to have relationships with the players.

“I’ve always looked up to Lexi Rodriguez,” Allick said postgame. “She maybe didn’t always have something to say, but she always made the play, but maybe it was the random hand hold or the hug. It was very intentional.”

With a senior class, specifically spotlighted by four-year letterwinners Allick and senior defensive specialist Maisie Boesiger, that has poured so much into the program throughout their time, don’t expect that continuity to end.

“[Allick] has put her heart and soul into this program, and you can tell by her face how much she cares,” Murray said postgame, speaking on behalf of her distraught teammate. “I don’t even care if we win or lose. She’s going to take away the memories and the relationships we’ve made, winning and losing.”

The loss hurts. Undoubtedly. The book on a video game-level team has written its final chapter on the 2025 season. It went out with a bang, a five-set thriller, but on the wrong side. Perhaps the new version of the John Cook Arena will bear more fruit when it comes online next year. 

But for now, the dreams and destiny of hoisting the big prize will have to wait another year.

“We’re excited to be back next year,” Murray said postgame.

Danny Berg is a volleyball beat writer for the Daily Nebraskan. Follow him on X

sports@dailynebraskan.com 

LINCOLN, Neb. — Texas A&M earned its first trip to the Final Four in women’s volleyball, upsetting previously unbeaten Nebraska in five sets on Sunday.

The top-ranked Huskers lost for the first time in 34 matches this season and saw streaks snapped of 29 consecutive postseason home wins and 63 consecutive home wins. Coach Dani Busboom Kelly’s team was denied a 19th trip to the Final Four.

A&M, seeded third in the Lincoln regional, won 15-13 in the decisive fifth set on Logan Lednicky’s 24th kill of the match. The Aggies (27-4) will make the trip to Kansas City to face Pitt on Thursday in a semifinal match. Kentucky will face Texas or Wisconsin in the other semifinal at the T-Mobile Center, with the winners to play for the national championship on Sunday, Dec. 21.

Coach Jamie Morrison’s team stunned the crowd at Devaney Center by winning the first two sets, both by scores of 25-22. The Huskers had won 54 of 55 sets at home this season before the regional final.

Nebraska rebounded with a 25-20 win in the third set and came back from 18-11 down in an epic fourth set that rated as one of the most dramatic in NCAA postseason history. Nebraska notched 10 set points, finally winning on a kill by Virginia Adriano. The Huskers fought off three match points.

“I think it might have been one of the most entertaining matches in the history of the sport,” Texas A&M coach Jamie Morrison said.

In the fifth set, the Aggies led 12-8 before Nebraska made a run. It staved off two more match points and came within one point of evening the score on a Harper Murray kill before Lednicky’s game-winner.

“We’re this good,” Morrison said. “(Nebraska) hadn’t been around a team that was going to stand up the way we did. We’re this tough. We’re this resilient. We’re this gritty.”

Kyndal Stowers led Texas A&M with 25 kills. Murray had 25 for Nebraska.

Pitt (30-4) beat third-seeded Purdue in four sets on Saturday. The Panthers advanced to a national semifinal for the fifth consecutive season — the first program to complete such a run since Texas from 2012 to 2016. Pitt is seeking its first appearance in a national championship match. It lost last year against Louisville in the semifinals.

Reigning national player of the year Olivia Babcock, among 14 semifinalists for the award this season, was named the most outstanding player of the Pitt regional.

Kentucky (29-2) swept third-seeded Creighton on Saturday to reach Kansas City. Outside hitters Brooklyn DeLeye and Eva Hudson combined for 32 kills. The Wildcats have won 26 consecutive matches and swept the SEC regular-season and tournament titles.

The Texas A&M volleyball program upset the No. 1 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers, 3-2, and is advancing to the Final Four for the first time in program history.

The Aggies’ miraculous reverse sweep of Louisville on Friday showed that this team has the determination and talent to beat any team in the country. That sentiment was proven again on Sunday afternoon, as the Aggies powered past the Cornhuskers for the program’s first win over a top-ranked opponent since 1985.

It all started with a dominant 2-0 lead through the first two sets. Texas A&M outscored Nebraska 50-44 and seemed in firm control of the match. The deficit was the first the Cornhuskers had faced since August 31 against the Kentucky Wildcats, in which the program reverse swept to take the match. Sunday was a different story, however. Texas A&M let the third and fourth set slip by, but the 15-13 win in the fifth set sealed the deal for the Aggies to send them to the school’s first Final Four.

The NCAA women’s volleyball tournament was rocked Sunday as Texas A&M upset previously undefeated No. 1 Nebraska 3-2, sending the Aggies to the program’s first final four.

The Huskers, who have won five national championships, had mostly cruised through this season but ran into an Aggies squad playing its best at the most important time.

“A lot of us are seniors, and we’ve been doing this for a really long time,” said Texas A&M’s Logan Lednicky, who had 24 kills and 6 block assists. “And I think all the newbies came in ready to work, ready to grind.”

Sophomore Kyndal Stowers had 25 kills and 16 digs for Texas A&M (27-4), which finished second to Kentucky in the SEC regular-season standings. The Wildcats are also headed to the final four; they advanced Saturday with a 3-0 win against Creighton.

Kentucky will face the winner of Sunday’s last regional final, between No. 1 seed Texas and No. 3 Wisconsin, on Thursday in Kansas City. The Aggies will meet No. 1 seed Pitt in the semifinals after the Panthers advanced Saturday with a 3-1 win over Purdue.

Texas A&M, the No. 3 seed in the Lincoln regional, upset No. 2 seed Louisville in a reverse sweep Friday. The Aggies almost had the same thing done to them when they won the first two sets against the Huskers, but lost the next two and were forced to a first-to-15 fifth set (must win by 2).

Texas A&M won the deciding set 15-13 in front of stunned sold-out crowd at Nebraska’s Bob Devaney Center. It was the Huskers’ first loss at home since Nov. 26, 2022, against Minnesota.

It was just the second time in Texas A&M program history that the Aggies defeated a No. 1-ranked team. They previously did so in 1995 against Stanford.

For Nebraska, it was another heartbreaking end to the season. The Huskers last won the national championship in 2017, when it was also held in Kansas City, and were hopeful of repeating that this year in the city just 3.5-hours south of their campus.

Since 2017, Nebraska has lost three times in the national championship match — in 2018, 2021 and 2023 — and fell in the national semifinals last season to eventual champion Penn State.

Former Huskers player and assistant Dani Busboom Kelly took over the program this season when longtime coach John Cook retired. She led Louisville to the NCAA final last year and in 2022, and it seemed things were set up for a storybook finish to her first season guiding Nebraska.

But it wasn’t to be, as Texas A&M out-blocked Nebraska 30-16 in what was one of the biggest keys to the upset.

“A really awesome game by Texas A&M,” Busboom Kelly said. “They played like they had six seniors on the court. I’m proud of the way we fought back. We played our hearts out.”

After losing the first two sets, both 25-22, Nebraska won the third set 25-20. That set the stage for what turned into a match-within-the-match, a 37-35 fourth set won by the Huskers on their 10th set point. It seemed as if that turned the momentum toward Nebraska, but the Aggies still had the last word in the fifth set.

“You play sports to prove who’s better in that moment,” Texas A&M coach Jamie Morrison said. “We came out on top of that, and I’m fired up.”