The air was thick in the arena as all eyes locked on the service line, hearts racing and palms sweating, as the score “24-20” glowed on the T-Mobile Center jumbotron. 

Fans’ quiet yelps of hope filled the air as the ball passed over the net. ​Then, senior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla delivered the final kill of her collegiate career — a career that ended in a national championship. 

This was the moment that “Why not us?” became “It is us.” 

On Dec. 21, 2025, 3-seed Texas A&M volleyball rocked the collegiate landscape by sweeping 1-seed Kentucky to win its first-ever national championship. 

But it wasn’t just breaking A&M records that made this run historic for the Aggies. The road to the final required a reverse sweep of 2-seed Louisville, a takedown highly favored 1-seed Nebraska at home and a sweep of 1-seed Pittsburgh — all before the championship. 

Then, A&M was left to face Southeastern Conference foe, 1-seed Kentucky — which had defeated the Aggies earlier in the season — in the first ever SEC versus SEC national championship. 

Some say it was a miracle, but senior opposite hitter Logan Lednicky said it was hard work that placed the trophy in their hands.
“It’s just the testament to the hard work that this program has put in all year long,” Lednicky said after the win over Kentucky. “ … ‘Why not us?’ has turned into ‘It is us.’ … All season long, all tournament long, we knew it was gonna be us.” 

While the Aggies had faith in their ability to make a championship run, their commitment shocked fans and players alike, as social media blew up with reactions, as a school with a historically average volleyball program managed to take down the most prestigious team in the nation.

The team was built upon a group of seniors who came to A&M to build the program — not win a national championship. 

“There’s a group of them that were here from the beginning that said, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of this. I want to build this program,’” head coach Jamie Morrison said. “ … I think when we were selling what we were doing, it was building something that they could come back to in the future and be really, really proud of what they helped build.”

Following the firing of former head coach Laura “Bird” Kuhn in 2022, Morrison and a revamped staff stepped into the ranks with one goal in mind — build the program. 

When Morrison approached the then-young players about his plans, they stuck beside him, ready to fight for a program they had faith in.

“I think the coolest thing is … they weren’t here to go win a national championship,” Morrison said. “They weren’t here to be top 10 … they were here to help build, but … it’s so amazing to be able to see the fruition of our work now. … They wanted to build something. They wanted to be a part of something. And to go out with a national championship, I’m just really happy.” 

Despite the uncertain future that lie ahead, seniors outside hitter Lexi Guinn, libero Ava Underwood, Lednicky and Cos-Okpalla bought into the vision that Morrison presented, and from there the building began. 

It started in the 2023 season with the addition of key players such as seniors OH Emily Hellmuth, setter Maddie Waak and MB Morgan Perkins.

Then came senior libero Tatum Thomas in 2024 before Morrison took his biggest risk yet coming into the 2025 season — bringing in medically retired redshirt sophomore OH Kyndal Stowers. 

The former Baylor Bear, who took a year and a half off from the sport and watched the 2024 national championship game from her sofa, quickly climbed the ranks and became one of A&M’s biggest assets. 

“A year ago … I sat on my couch and watched some good friends of mine actually win this game, and now to be living that is genuinely surreal,” Stowers said. “It was a journey to get here. Good days, bad days. It took [Morrison] believing in me … to take me on his roster and coach me every single day. … And then all of these girls trusting me to come in and take that role on from the first day. … They were with me every single day, regardless of the highs and lows.” 

They were absolutely with Stowers in her highest moment, as she earned the 2025 NCAA Most Outstanding Player award. 

The team came into the season with a vision of success and gentle reminders every day from Morrison to always be themselves. 

Whether that led to them giggling and goofing off at 6 a.m. on the first day of practice, or all jumping onto the court together while holding hands during the tournament, each “little version” of themselves is what helped Morrison’s highly skilled players come together as a national championship team. 

“Jamie reminded us … earlier today and yesterday and every day leading up to this game, of, like, just remembering all of our little versions of ourselves,” Stowers said. “ … I feel like that also just allows us to also trust each other.” 

Trust was an important aspect for this team — as was knowing what individuals and the collective needed in both moments of frustration and excitement. 

A notable takeaway for many fans this season was Cos-Okpalla’s calm composure, even after making game-changing plays. When reporters asked her about this reaction, she said it all comes back to knowing the team and following what Morrison said all season long. 

“I think Jamie is always talking, he instills it in us; it’s pretty much every day we’ve heard it, just be us,” Cos-Okpalla said. “Not only just us as a team, us as individuals. That’s what makes us us, or makes me me or Kyndal Kyndal or Logan Logan. We all bring something different to the team. I think we just mesh so well together. … When I’m doing my thing, they know it’s supposed to fire people up. When Logan is cheering, yelling, it fires people up. Everybody just has their own way of celebrating, being themselves. Everybody just bounces off of it.”

And everybody bounced off it when Cos-Okpalla put down the game-winning kill and — for one of the only times this season — turned around with a celebration, yelling “come on” as the team rushed the floor.

“After the match, obviously, there’s a lot of emotions and everyone’s giving hugs and everything, but I think when we got back to Reed is when it kinda hit a lot of people,” Lednicky said the morning after the championship. “Especially me, like, I’m not gonna get to see a lot of these girls … and so there were some tears shed and stuff like that, but all in very bittersweet moments, just knowing that, like, we accomplished everything we wanted to with the group of girls.”