For the first time since 2019, 3-seed Texas A&M volleyball hosted the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Reed Arena.
It didn’t waste the opportunity.
In front of a roaring, postseason-program-record crowd of 5,830 strong — bolstered by free student tickets offered by coach Jamie Morrison and Texas A&M Athletics — the Aggies swept the Campbell Fighting Camels 3-0: 25-20, 25-10, 25-13.
“The fact that we were effortlessly ourselves and we played really smooth volleyball in the first round of the NCAA Tournament is a good sign for things to come,” Morrison said.
KEEP ON DANCIN’ 💃#GigEm // #AggieVB pic.twitter.com/apfxNjR9sM
— Texas A&M Volleyball (@AggieVolleyball) December 6, 2025
The Aggies hit .419 over the course of the match to the Fighting Camels’ mere .082 hitting percentage. Senior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky led all players with 18 kills, while senior outside hitter Emily Hellmuth added 10 more.
“That feels great to just be able to get off on the right note,” Hellmuth said. “And again, like we talk so much about having a balanced team, I just saw a lot of space tonight. I had a lot of splits, and that wouldn’t be the case if we didn’t have a great setter and great middles and another great side of the court on the opposite end.”
Even without “Monster Block,” playing over the loudspeakers — NCAA Tournament arena programming is different, after all — senior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla made the 12th Man feel right at home with a total of six blocks on the night, while Lednicky contributed five of her own.
They tried, we denied
👍 2-0 🐪
S3: 20-12#GigEm // #AggieVB pic.twitter.com/0lazfNMzfh— Texas A&M Volleyball (@AggieVolleyball) December 6, 2025
“That’s been something that I’m working on quite a bit in my game,” Lednicky said. “And so honestly, pretty rewarding for me to just have a solid night going into the tournament, so hopefully continuing that as we go on.”
Runs were the name of the game in the first set. The Fighting Camels didn’t let the hostile environment affect their composure early in Set 1, hanging with the Aggies early before a 4-0 scoring run gave A&M a 13-8 lead and forced Campbell to take its first timeout.
Another 4-0 run — aided by Morrison’s first challenge — grew the Aggie lead to 17-9. Just a few points later, Campbell coach Greg Goral felt the need to take his next timeout as A&M closed in on the red zone up 19-10.
The Fighting Camels lived up to their name, though, rallying back with an 8-1 run to make things 23-20 before a service error gave the Aggies set point.
Lednicky and Cos-Okpalla were quick to capitalize, combining for a block that gave A&M the Set 1 victory, 25-20.
The Aggies held the Fighting Camels to a hitting percentage of just .108 in Set 1 while hitting .242. Lednicky led the way with six first-set kills.
With Campbell thinking it had tied things up 5-5 in Set 2, Morrison was quick to take another challenge — and was, once again, successful. With A&M on a 4-0 scoring run that grew the home squad’s lead to 9-4, Goral called another timeout to stop the bleeding.
It slowed the bleeding, but it sure didn’t stop it. Like a broken record, the Aggies put together another successful scoring run spurred on by a successful challenge call that forced the Fighting Camels to take another timeout in a last-ditch effort to salvage something from Set 2, with the Maroon and White up 18-9.
That effort was all in vain. A&M closed Set 2 out with a 9-1 scoring run as Lednicky added another eight kills to bring her total up to 14. A&M hit a blistering .727 in the second set.
Defensively, the Aggies held the Fighting Camels to a goose egg as the visitors hit .000 in the second set.
A&M rode its second-set momentum into Set 3, taking a 9-3 lead that forced a Campbell timeout. The avalanche didn’t stop there, though, as a 7-1 Aggie scoring run kept the parting going for the rowdy Reed Arena crowd.
But with its season on the end, Campbell found an extra gear. The Fighting Camels cut the Aggies’ lead to as little as seven points — but that was too much to overcome, as the Maroon and White took Set 3, 25-13.
The environment wasn’t lost on Campbell though, as the Coastal Athletic Association champions ended its season in front of the largest crowd that several Fighting Camels said was the largest they’ve ever played in front of.
“Those are the environments that you cherish,” Goral said. “I appreciate it, for my players to be in a great environment for volleyball. Not every coliseum or arena is like the one here at A&M, so it’s fun and you guys are fortunate to have a great crowd that knows volleyball.”
Next, A&M will look for revenge against 6-seed TCU which defeated the Maroon and White in five sets earlier this fall as part of a weekend road trip with a match at SMU.
Morrison said the team refers to those matches as “Voldemort” because they don’t like to discuss how they played in Dallas-Fort Worth.
“Literally, I do not recognize the team when I go back and watch that match on scouting,” Morrison said. “ … TCU is a really good volleyball team. They’re well coached, they have good athletes, they compete but there’s no doubt in my mind we are a different volleyball team right now than we were the last time we played them at their house.”
The Aggies will see if they can be the team who lived on Saturday, Dec. 6, at Reed Arena with first serve set for 7 p.m. and a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.
