The latest Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown on Wednesday featured Texas A&M volleyball traveling to Gregory Gym in Austin to face No. 7 Texas in a match where emotions ran high. A&M sought its first win against Texas since 2010, while Texas hoped for its 80th conference win at home. One had to give, and A&M pulled out a nail-biter when it mattered most in a 3-2 victory, its first win in Austin since 2001.

This was the second time this season that both programs met, with the first match taking place at Reed Arena on Sept. 27. In that match, the Longhorns were challenged, but persevered, taking the game in four sets. It made Wednesday’s victory all the more special for the Aggies.

Wednesday night just felt different. A&M was confident down the stretch, sending it to five sets against Texas for the first time since 2005. With 23 kills, junior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky had one of her strongest performances of the season and was electric after the win.

“I could cry,” Lednicky said. “This means the world to me. I’ve grown up an Aggie. I’m a fourth generation. We put so much blood, sweat and tears into this. We just fought so hard for this win and I’m so happy we pulled it out tonight.”

Although Lednicky played a major factor in her team’s victory, she credited her team with all the accomplishments on the court.

“I owe it all to my teammates,” Lednicky said. “I see space, I hit space. When the challenge is in front of me, I like to go get it and being in a gym full of burnt orange, there’s not really any better way to go do that.”

Set 1 was very tight, with Texas taking the win, 27-25. It was back-and-forth the whole match, with Lednicky beginning the night with a kill for the first point. Texas would score the next three points off of three attack errors.

A&M could not tie it up until midway through the first set when it went on a 5-0 run and took the 15-14 lead courtesy of a service error, an attack error and two kills by Lednicky and junior outside hitter Taylor Humphrey. A two-point lead was the only break A&M would catch before Texas stormed back, but not without a challenge.

Back-to-back aces from junior setter Maddie Waak gave the Aggies a 22-21 lead and forced the Longhorns to call a timeout. The Longhorns tied it at 24 before a Lednicky kill gave A&M a 25-24 lead that was fumbled.

In Set 2, the Aggies won convincingly in a pivotal period that turned the table on how the evening went. A 4-0 run and another 5-0 rally resulted in an 11-4 A&M lead, with junior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla adding to the fun with a kill. The Aggies’ lead grew to as many as 11 before closing it out, 25-14.

Texas was not pleased with the previous outcome and answered in Set 3 with a narrow win, 25-23. A&M began down four points, needing to rally the troops to maintain the momentum. Junior libero Ava Underwood did so with an ace followed by a Lednicky kill to take a 9-8 lead.

The rest of the match consisted of both squads exchanging points, with the Maroon and White unable to catch up after giving up the lead. Junior OH Emily Hullmuth recorded a kill to pull within one, but the match point came with an attack error.

“My message was that we’re good enough to play in this moment,” coach Jamie Morrison said in a press release. “When we lost sets it was a four or five point stretch where we didn’t play our volleyball, and when we played our game good things happened.”

With another tight match between the interstate rivals, Set 4 saw the Maroon and White roll on all cylinders, going in front by as much as eight points. Time passed, and soon enough, the Burnt Orange went on a 6-0 run, raising both fanbases’ blood pressure in the gym.

Longhorn Nation witnessed its team trailing 19-18 before Lednicky slammed home a kill. Two kills by Hellmuth, an attack error and a service error had the Aggies at 24-21 with Lednicky sending an intense game to a fifth set.

Going into the fifth set, we all came on the court and we said ‘If there’s a team to do it, it’s us,’ and ‘Why not us?’” Lednicky said “We have poured our blood, sweat and tears into this. We put so much effort into preparing for Texas and for the SEC in general, but we have really worked our butts off and proved we are the better team tonight.”

In the night’s final set, it took more than 15 points to end the game. Junior MB Morgan Perkins started things off with a kill before a kill and service ace for Texas. After a 3-0 run, Morrison chose to call a timeout to gather his team up and calm it down.

Whatever Morrison said worked for the Aggies, who went on a 4-0 run courtesy of a kill by Hellmuth, two service errors and a bad set. Later in the set, the match was knotted at 13 before Texas got to match point.

It wasn’t the only one, as one of Hellmuth’s 15 kills kept A&M alive. Cos-Okpalla came up clutch not once, but twice, tying the game at 15 and 16 with two kills. She gave the Aggies a shot at redemption, and her determination paid off as two attack errors sealed the win, 18-16.

“I’m so proud of the grind that this team showed throughout the match and especially in crucial moments,” Morrison said. “We talked about playing perfect volleyball for 30 second stretches and we did that in the moments we needed to.”

A&M improved to 14-4 overall and 5-3 in conference play, while Texas was saddled with its first-ever loss as a member of the SEC.

Next up for the Aggies are the Crimson Tide, as Alabama rolls into Reed Arena on Friday, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m., with the match streaming on SEC Network+.