In what’s becoming a pattern lately, Texas A&M volleyball redshirt sophomore outside hitter Kyndal Stowers — and the rest of the Aggies — doesn’t know what to think.
They didn’t know what to think and feel after reverse-sweeping 2-seed Louisville. They didn’t know what to think and feel after a monumental upset of 1-seed Nebraska that sent A&M to its first-ever Final Four.
And as the Aggies swept the 1-seed Pittsburgh Panthers, 3-0, at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday, Dec. 18, they settled for simply doing, as the freight train kept rolling on to the first-ever national championship match.
TEXAS A&M SWEEPS THEIR WAY TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 🔥#NCAAWVB x 🎥 ESPN / @AggieVolleyball pic.twitter.com/zaRz7x9m1L
— NCAA Women’s Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) December 19, 2025
“This is an absolutely crazy experience,” Stowers said. “We have had faith in ourselves all year, from the first game of the season we knew that we were capable of this. But now living it, it’s like, wow.”
Stowers led the Aggies with 16 kills as A&M hit .382, while Pitt hit .344 for the match. And once again, it was A&M which beat the projections and national expectations.
“It’s probably beating a dead horse, but y’all keep hearing, ‘Why not us?’” senior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky said. “Like literally, why not us? I think we are considered the underdog in a lot of these moments, just because we haven’t been here before. But we know we have all the right pieces.”
To overcome the Panthers, the Aggies had to take down Lednicky’s USA Volleyball teammate, Pitt junior right side hitter Olivia Babcock, an American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Year finalist.
Babcock led all players in kills and blocks with 22 and six, respectively.
“Obviously it’s tough coming out on this side and seeing the tears and all that stuff,” Lednicky said. “Because I love her to death, and I want nothing but the best.”
The Aggies led the way through most of the first set, although things were close with the Maroon and White never leading by more than three points. A&M forced Pitt to call a timeout after taking a 12-9 lead, but a hard-charging Panther squad looked in control up 19-18 before Morrison challenged for a net fault.
The newly minted AVCA National Coach of the Year won the challenge, and his Aggies hit the red zone first, up 20-19.
The Maroon and White called timeout with things tied up 21-21, and Stowers and Lednicky quickly combined for a 2-0 run that forced an ensuing Panther timeout with the Aggies up 23-21.
A&M appeared to win Set 1 on a close call, but a Pitt challenge was looked at extensively after Pitt coach Dan Fisher challenged, and the ball was ruled out, sending things to deuce.
The Aggies had three set points and the Panthers had two of their own before Stowers secured the set with her ninth kill, 29-27.
Buoyed by the Set 1 victory, A&M came out strong in the second set, taking what appeared to be a 9-5 lead — the biggest lead either team had held in the match so far — before Fisher challenged for a block touch. While he didn’t get the call he was looking for, the referees ruled that the original out call was in and cut the Aggies’ lead down to 8-6.
The Aggies didn’t flinch and soon forced a Panther timeout after going up 10-6. This time it was Pitt who had a post-timeout rally, putting up a 5-0 run to take a 12-11 lead and force a timeout from Morrison before extending the run to as much as 8-0, leading to a 15-11 advantage. Senior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla ended the Panthers’ streak with a kill and Lednicky added back-to-back kills of her own to give A&M a 4-0 run.
“We just came together as a team and realized a very similar thing happened when we were playing Nebraska,” Stowers said. “ … And we were like, ‘Hey, we’re not doing that again.’”
The Aggies put together another quick 3-0 run to take an 18-16 lead and forced a Panther timeout, before back-to-back kills from senior OH Emily Hellmuth gave A&M a 20-17 lead. The Aggies rode a string of Panther attack errors and a “Monster Block” by Cos-Okpalla and Stowers to close the frame on another 4-0 run and take a Set 2 victory, 25-21.
Pitt took control early in Set 3, before a 5-0 A&M scoring run that included a pair of aces from senior setter Maddie Waak gave the Aggies a 12-10 lead.
Waak finished the night with 48 assists and earned AVCA All-American honors this week.
TEXAS A&M SWEEPS THEIR WAY TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 🔥#NCAAWVB x 🎥 ESPN / @AggieVolleyball pic.twitter.com/zaRz7x9m1L
— NCAA Women’s Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) December 19, 2025
“She’s just unreal,” Lednicky said. “We were all talking from all the All-American stuff, like finally getting what she deserves, like the recognition she deserves. Because I’ve been with her for pretty much my whole volleyball career, and now the world is getting to see how good she really is.”
That swiftly turned into a 9-2 run as Pitt called its second timeout in quick succession with A&M up 16-12. The Panthers had some fight left in them, as they tied things up 18-18 in short order.
Perhaps fittingly, it was A&M’s seniors who had the final say. Cos-Okpalla and Lednicky combined for a shared block and a trio of kills as the Aggies closed out the match on yet another 4-0 run that sent them to their first national championship match in school history.
“You kind of just reach that point throughout a match where we’re all grouping on all cylinders,” Lednicky said. “However many kills, like we said this before, Maddie’s offense is so spread that it makes our jobs easy.”
The Aggies will face the winner of 1-seed Kentucky and 3-seed Wisconsin in the National Championship match on Sunday.
